Return To Stoneybrook Crescent
by girl-inspired
Summary: Michaela and Tweedle-Tay Manson do as the title says, hoping to save their coma-ridden brother Grubbery. A tale of revenge. Fourth book in Tweedle-Tay Saga, sequel to San Fernando Valley High. Hanfic parody.
1. A Walking Study of Demonology

Chapter 1 - "A Walking Study of Demonology" -Tweedle-Tay's Story  
April 1st, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"That'll be $12.55," the taxi driver said as the taxi pulled up outside the 'Mae Ashton Hospital'.  
Michaela hastily went through her purse and pulled out $15. "Kept the change," she said, flashing a winning smile as she jumped out of the car.  
As I climbed out of the car I took another look at the driver. A Leonardo DiCaprio look-a-like. Straight out of 'Romeo and Juliet'. It figured.  
Michaela and I had flown to Oklahoma City this morning, then taken a bus to Tulsa and a taxi to the hospital, all in an effort to find Grubbery. I looked at Michaela and frowned. "I hope the coma isn't too bad," I said softly.  
"I've never heard of a good coma," she replied. She gave me a little smile. "I'm sure he'll get better really soon. He might even be out of the coma already," she said, nodding as if to convince herself.  
"Can they be that short?" I asked, surprised, as we walked up the steps to the hospital door.  
Michaela shrugged. "I think so. Remember when we used to watch 'General Hospital'? People were always going in and out of comas."  
For some reason her words did little to comfort me. "Maybe we should have waited for Grubbery before we left the house. Maybe then this wouldn't have happened......"  
Michaela frowned. "Maybe...." she agreed. "But we weren't to know that." She stopped walking and took my hand. "Grubbery is going to be fine," she said. "The chances of him dying are so slim -"  
I shook her off me. "Yeah, but they're still there, aren't they?" I walked ahead more quickly.  
"Tweedle-Tay!" Michaela called, running after me. "You haven't even seen him yet. Can't we at least wait until we see him?" she said, pleading with her eyes.  
"Whatever," I replied. We walked over to the reception desk. "Um, excuse me," I said to the old, matronly, nurse. "Can you please tell us where Grubbery Manson is?"  
The nurse groaned. "Not more children!" she said impatiently. I looked at Michaela and raised my eyebrows. We were seventeen and we hardly looked thirteen. "Don't you have anything better to do than stalk ex-child stars?" the nurse continued.  
I flinched. If Grubbery was an ex-child star, then so was I. Was there anything more pitiful than that? Being a has-been was, in some ways, worse than being a never-was. Michaela smiled sweetly. "Actually, we don't have anything better to do. You see, that 'ex-child star' is our little brother, and we'd like to see him," she said. I had to stop myself from laughing. Michaela was flirting with a sixty year old nurse to get her way. This wasn't going to work.  
The nurse laughed. "Nice try honey. The Manson family are already up there with Grubbery. If you were a Manson, you'd be there with them."  
Michaela still held her fake smile. She held my face in her hands and said to the nurse, "Look at this boy's face! Does it look familiar?"  
The nurse shrugged.  
"It should! He's Tweedle-Tay Manson.... you know, everybody's favourite Manson?" Michaela raised her voice slightly. I kicked her in the shins. We didn't want to attract the attention of everybody in the reception.  
The nurse laughed. "Girlie, believe it or not, I'm not really all that interested in '90's pop music. Would you please leave? You're causing a bit of a scene."  
She wasn't going to let us in? We had to see Grubbery. "Please," I begged, "We have to see our brother. We haven't seen him for two and a half years....."  
Michaela was going through her purse. She pulled out an old photo of Manson and showed it to the nurse. I hadn't know she's carried that around with her. "Look," Michaela said, leaning over the counter. "See this picture?? That's Grubbery, that's Neuton and that's my brother Tweedle- Tay. Doesn't it look like him?" The nurse nodded. "Now, I'm not in this picture but you have to admit the picture of Tweedle-Tay looks quite a bit like me too," Michaela folded her arms triumphantly.  
The nurse nodded. "I guess it does..... Look, I can't be bothered arguing with a couple of teenagers with such a ..... convincing case so.... He's in room C17. On the third floor."  
"Thank you so much!!!" I said, leaning over and kissing the nurse in my excitement.  
"Thank you," Michaela smiled, a little less enthusiastically. As we walked towards the lifts she gave me a little smile. "Bet that made her year," she whispered to me.  
I smiled back. We were going to get to see Grubbery. We walked into the lift and went up to the third floor. We walked along in silence, looking for C17. I tried to think of something to say to Michaela, but nothing was coming out. I thought of Alisha. I was supposed to see her today. "I'll have to call Alisha," I said to Michaela.  
Michaela raised her eyebrows. She shook her head. "I can't believe you'd think of Alisha at a time like this. Really," she said. "We do have more pressing matters."  
"Yes," I agreed. "We do."  
We came to the door of C17 and opened it, making our way into the room. It was a pretty nice room, L-shaped, our parents must have paid for it out of Grubbery's trust fund. I walked around the corner, Michaela close behind, and saw Grubbery lying pale of the bed. He looked quite similar to how he used to, taller, maybe Michaela's height or a little taller than that. He'd kept his hair the same. He looked so young and innocent, like a little child. But Grubbery wasn't eleven anymore. He was fourteen. Fourteen must be a cursed age at our house.  
"Well, well, well," a deep voice said.  
I heard Michaela gasp. She too must have been entranced by Grubbery. I looked up and saw our father and Neuton. I gulped. "Hello," I stammered. Michaela came to stand beside me and gave a little wave.  
"Tweedle-Tay," our father said. "Would you please ensure the girl does not come too close to your brother? She's caused enough trouble in this house as it is. She's probably the reason your brother went into the coma in the first place."  
Michaela whimpered. It was strange. My sister who was almost always happy and certainly always confident, was reduced to a wreck in the presence of our father. I was not much better. "Michaela," I managed to choke out, "Did not make Grubbery go into a coma. She didn't have anything to do with it."  
"Oh really," said Neuton. "And I don't suppose you were here to tell?"  
Michaela's hatred for Neuton was stronger than her fear of him. "And I don't suppose you were here either," she said.  
"Tweedle-Tay," our father said, walking over to Michaela and I, "Look at what your sister has done to you. Look how skinny you are."  
"I've always been thin..... father," I said nervously. I couldn't bring myself to call him Dad. I looked at him and realised that I was almost an inch taller than him. That meant I was taller than Neuton, something I had always looked forward to. Why didn't that excite me anymore?  
"Your sister," our father said, stroking my arm, "She seduced you, didn't she. She forced you to go against God's will." He laughed. "When will you children ever learn? Grubbery is in a coma because he disobeyed his parents -"  
"You put Grubbery in a coma?" I cut in.  
"Don't interrupt!" Father yelled. "Your mother and I did not put Grubbery in a coma but if he had obeyed us - and God - he would not be in this condition. You and.... Michaela.... are in the condition you are now because she seduced you. Look at your sister Tweedle-Tay," my father said, looking into my eyes. "Look at that skirt she's wearing. Eight inches above the knee. Why would a girl wear a skirt that short when she's only going to be around her brother?" He paused. "Because she want's to seduce him. If you had thought of God instead of sex when you looked at your pretty twin sister you'd be far better off. Neuton obeyed God and he's at college studying accounting. Your mother and I obeyed God -"  
"No you didn't!" Michaela yelled. My father took a step forward and she took a step back. "Abusing your children and marrying your sister is not the sort of thing a good Christian does!"  
Neuton gasped. "It's not true!" my father said, turning around to face him. "Who are you going to believe? Me, or that little whore?"  
Neuton just stood there, looking confused. Michaela and I ran over to Grubbery's bed. "Grubbery," Michaela said, stroking his hair.  
"It's okay. Tay and Kay are here now," I said, taking his hand.  
"Can you hear us Grub? If you can, just know that soon everything will be okay. We'll get you out of here and we'll save your soul," Michaela added.  
"You won't have to live like this much longer," I went on.  
Neuton must have agreed with our father because at that moment I was grabbed by our father and Michaela was grabbed by Neuton and we were thrown out of the room.  
We stood outside, smoothing down our clothes. "Grub's not dead," Michaela said cheerfully. "He's going to be fine. I can feel it. God won't let the most pure member of our family die."  
I was surprised to hear Michaela spouting all this religious talk, especially since she'd never been to church in her life, but I nodded. "Yeah, we'll get him out of there before he tears himself apart." I felt around in my pocket for change. "Do you have a quarter?" I asked Michaela.  
"Sure," she said, going through her purse. "Why?"  
"I have to call Alisha," I said, taking the money and running towards the nearest pay-phone. 


	2. Wake Up

Chapter 2 - "Wake up" - Michaela's Story  
April 5th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
I stopped outside the hospital gift shop and looked at the displays. "Do you think we should get Grub a present?" I asked.  
Tweedle-Tay shrugged. "There's not much point. He is unconscious. But if you want to, why not?" He smiled. "It's a nice touch."  
Tweedle-Tay and I had been visiting Grubbery at the hospital every day since we'd come to Tulsa, to no avail. Grubbery was still in the coma. But not to worry. It was early days yet. I took $2 from my purse and bought some jellybeans. Tweedle-Tay and I were renting a house on Myrtle Street, which was a few blocks away from our parents' house on Stoneybrook Crescent. We weren't planning to stay there for long, just long enough to see Grubbery and get him out of the house, or at least talk to him. The unspoken fear of both myself and Tweedle-Tay was, however, that Grubbery would never come out of the coma and we'd be stuck in Tulsa forever, forever waiting.  
Yesterday when we'd come to the hospital, our visit happened to coincide with the visit of our younger sisters and brother. It was amazing how much older they looked. Elizabeth was dressing like a teenager, Kessie was nine years old and MacArthy was seven. We saw our little sister Mozzie for the first time and felt.... nothing. She was a very pretty little girl, she sort of looked like Elizabeth, but it was so strange to think that she was our sister and she had no idea we existed. Tay and I had tried to approach Elizabeth and Kestrel, but our mother had seen us and moved them along.  
Tay and I walked to the lift and pressed the button so that it would go to the third floor. "Tay," I said carefully.  
"Yeah...."  
"Would you mind not talking to Alisha for such long periods of time on the phone?" I asked sweetly.  
Tweedle-Tay looked upset. "I haven't seen her in almost a week!" he protested. "We have heaps of money! We certainly have enough to spare so that I can talk to Alisha."  
We got out of the lift. "Long distance phone calls cost a lot Tay."  
"Michaela," he said impatiently. "I really love Alisha!" His voice softened. "But you don't seem to understand that....."  
So he kept telling me. "Tweedle-Tay! You've only known her for a month. That's not love. It's short term infatuation. Believe me, I know about these things," I said.  
"Oh really? And who have you loved?" my brother challenged me.  
I ignored his question. "Tweedle-Tay, you're the sort of person who always thinks he's falling in love when he's not. You've done it before and you'll do it again. You should consider yourself lucky that you have me here to drag you back to reality."  
Tweedle-Tay looked pissed off. "I have not done this before! When have I done this before?"  
"Oh you have done it before," I assured him, walking slightly faster.  
"Then when? When have I done this before?" Tweedle-Tay pressed.  
I turned around to face him. "Hmmm, let's see. Oooo! I know! 'At the time it didn't feel as though I was doing something wrong. I love you so much that it felt right.' It's just like it was then my dear brother - stupid sexual tension!" I said, my voice rising.  
Tweedle-Tay looked as though he'd been slapped in the face. "I'm not going to talk to you when you're like this," he said, shaking his head. "You have PMS, don't you?"  
"No!" I yelled. I lowered my voice. "I don't know, and anyway, it's none of your business."  
We started to walk again. "Anyway Michaela, at least I love someone other than myself."  
"And what's that supposed to mean?"  
"Please Michaela, you should see yourself in front of the mirror!" He made his voice squeaky and high pitched. "Oh I'm Michaela and I'm just soooo pretty and clever. Everybody loves me because I'm purrrfect!"  
"Tweedle-Tay Manson! I am not like that and you know it!" I said, shaking. "You're just being mean, really mean, and you know it!"  
"Well you're being mean too," he replied.  
I couldn't answer back to that. I had a reason to be mean, a reason I couldn't tell Tweedle-Tay. I frowned. "I'm sorry," I said quickly.  
He sighed. "I'm sorry too. You're not like that.... most of the time."  
I managed to smile and we walked into Grubbery's room. He was lying there, motionless, still in the coma. I wiped away a tear as the two of us went to sit by his bed. I took his hand, "Hey Grub! It's us again. I hope you can hear us. Anyway -"  
Grubbery's eyes fluttered open. "Huh?" he said.  
Tweedle-Tay's face spread into a smile. "Michaela! You woke him up. Your voice brought him out of the coma!" Tweedle-Tay hugged me in excitement. I felt so proud.  
Grubbery laughed. "Hey Tweedle-Tay, hey Michaela! You didn't bring me out of the coma, I came out last night. I was just trying to sleep," he paused. "But it was a little hard with all that yelling the two of you were doing."  
Tay and I looked at each other guiltily. "Grubbery, it's so great to see you again after all these years," I said.  
"You too," he replied. "You don't look so alike anymore..... How did you find out about me being here?"  
"Entertainment Tonight," Tweedle-Tay and I replied in unison.  
Grubbery smiled. "It's so great to know that you're okay."  
"That we're okay?" Tweedle-Tay asked in disbelief. "We weren't the ones hit by a truck!"  
Grubbery frowned. "No, you weren't. So, how long are you guys planning on staying in Tulsa?"  
I looked a Tweedle-Tay. "Uh, we came because we're worried about you," I said carefully.  
Grubbery groaned. "Oh no, Mom and Dad didn't put you up to this, did they?"  
  
I laughed. "God no," I said. "They hate us!"  
"We came because we want to save you from our evil parents, stop them from ruining your life like they did ours," Tweedle-Tay explained.  
"In the attic?" Grubbery asked.  
We nodded. "You know?" Tay asked, surprised.  
Grubbery nodded. "I've been punishing them for it ever since I found out. Anyway, the 'evil parents' will be back in about ten minutes so we'll have to do something before then."  
I thought for a few seconds. "We're renting a house so if you feel up to it we could leave right now. Tay and I can drive you there." I paused. "We rented a car too," I explained.  
My brothers seemed to like the idea. "I'll just get into some clothes," Grubbery said, "So if you don't mind guarding the door Michaela....."  
I knew where he was headed. "Sure," I said, getting up to guard the door. Within a few minutes Grubbery was dressed and had all his belongings in a bag. "All set?" I asked.  
Grub and Tay nodded so we began to make our way out of the hospital. 


	3. Do You Still Remember How We Used To Be?

Chapter 3 - "Do You Still Remember How We Used To Be?" - Tweedle-Tay's  
Story  
April 6th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. I slammed my hand down on my alarm clock and looked at the time. 7am. Just early enough to talk to Alisha before she went to school. I hadn't called her yesterday and I didn't want her to think I didn't like her. I rolled out of bed and put on a pair of jeans and a black Aerosmith T-shirt. I walked quickly down the hallway to the loungeroom and picked up the phone. 0-1-3-9-3-7-0-4-2-7-0. I punched in Alisha's phone number and waited for someone to pick up. "Hello?" a voice said.  
"Hi Gorgeous!" I replied.  
"Well hello Damian!" It was Alisha's older sister.  
"Uh, can I speak to Alisha?" I asked.  
Alisha's sister groaned and said something about how the stupid bastard Damian never called. Within a few seconds another voice was at the phone. "Hi Gorgeous!" I said again.  
"Huh? Oh hi TJ," Alisha said. She sounded tired.  
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned. "You sound sick...."  
There was a pause. "No TJ, I just stayed out a little too late last night and now I'm reaping the consequences....."  
Alisha had gone out drinking again. "You went out on a school night?" I asked incredulously. "What are you going to do today?"  
Alisha sighed. "Take a Panadol and face the teachers I suppose. My parents will kill me if I truant. They don't know I went out last night and if they found out they'd slit my throat."  
"Well you do sound sick so maybe you could pass it off as the flu," I suggested helpfully.  
Alisha laughed. "Maybe, but my parents have seen me hungover before..... It must be costing you a heap of money to call me long distance every day. Why don't you just give me your phone number? We can split the cost," she suggested.  
See how sweet Alisha was? How could Michaela think of someone so lovely as a bitch? "Oh no Alisha, that's okay. I don't mind doing all the calling."  
There was a pause. "Where exactly are you honey?" Alisha asked sweetly.  
"I'm visiting my brother. He's been in a bit of trouble...." I said.  
"Yes, but WHERE are you?" Alisha persisted. "If you're there for a long time I might want to go and see you."  
Alisha was going to come and see me? That would be so great. "I'm in Tulsa."  
"Your family lives in Tulsa?" Alisha asked.  
"Yeah," I replied. I actually wouldn't mind that much if Alisha knew who I really was. It wasn't like it would ruin my life or anything. It might even make her like me more.  
Alisha laughed. "No wonder you and your sister moved to LA!"  
I smiled to myself. "We didn't move away from Tulsa because we didn't like it, we moved away because of..... family difficulties."  
"Right," Alisha said. "Well I might come and visit you -"  
"Tweedle-Tay!" Michaela hissed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She'd obviously been listening in for some time.  
"Talking to Alisha," I replied.  
"TJ?" Alisha asked.  
"Just a sec -" I said covering the phone.  
Michaela groaned. "Tweedle-Tay! Your obsession with Alisha is bad enough without you telling her our family secrets. I went to Junior High with her - and elementary school! She's not to be trusted."  
Michaela was really pissed off. What was her problem with Alisha? Why was she being such a bitch? She wasn't acting like herself, she wasn't acting like the Michaela I adored. She was always either depressed or pissed off. I took my hand off the phone. "Alisha, it would be great if you'd come and visit, but I have to go now. I'll call you soon, okay?"  
Alisha sighed. "Sure TJ...." she said. "Bye!"  
"Bye Lisha!" I said, hanging up the phone.  
Michaela had left the room and gone into the kitchen, where she was making herself a bowl of cereal. I picked up an apple and began to eat. "Michaela, what is your problem?" I asked.  
"With Alisha?" she said, looking up at me. She poured milk onto her cereal and went to sit down at the table. I followed her.  
"Who else?" I asked.  
Michaela whined. "I'm trying to like Alisha," she said. "But you have to understand that this is very hard for me. I try to like Alisha, but I really re -" Michaela cut herself off. She shrugged. "Don't....."  
"Why not? She's never done anything bad to you!" I protested.  
Michaela shook her head. "You don't know that! I mean, she hasn't but.... I can't talk about this Tay," she frowned. "This is really hard for me to say."  
I threw the apple core into the bin from across the room. "Well Michaela, you're changing. You're not the Michaela you used to be. You're not the sweet, happy, fun, Michaela anymore. You're just the miserable, bitchy, let's-depress-everyone, Michaela."  
Michaela's lip began to quiver. "Well I WANT to be 'happy Michaela'. But, but, I can't tell you why I don't like Alisha."  
"Why not?" I pressed.  
"Because you're not supposed to love Alisha!" Michaela said loudly. "You're supposed to love....." Michaela frowned. "Oh what the hell! Go fuck Alisha! See if I care!"  
"I'm not fucking Alisha!" I protested.  
Michaela started to cry. "I'm so sick of this! Why do I always have to be the perfect one? Everything would be okay if it weren't for Alisha. Every one has someone to love and someone who loves them except for me. I'm supposed to your favourite girl - not Alisha!"  
Michaela thought she was my favourite person? Well, she used to be, but not anymore. Lately she'd been a boring bitch. "Well, maybe if you were a little nicer I would like you more!"  
Michaela screamed. "Okay, okay! I'm trying to be nicer and more happy but it's not easy when your own brother doesn't like you...... So now I'm going to try and like Alisha - will that make you happy???"  
"Yes. It will," I said, walking back into my room.  
  
Michaela and I spent the rest of the morning in our respective rooms, totally ignoring one another. Grubbery was still sleeping. He must have been tired after his ordeal. Finally, at about lunch time, I got bored with sitting in my room by myself and went out into the lounge room to watch TV. Unfortunately Michaela had the same idea and was curled up on the lounge watching 'Ricki Lake'. I had nothing better to do so I sat down next to her. She looked over at me. "Hey Tay," she said sadly.  
"Hi Michaela," I replied.  
"I'm really, really sorry about what a bitch I'm being. I'm going to try to like Alisha and be nice to her. Everything else in my life is quite okay. I guess I was just......" Michaela paused and made a face. "Jealous of her." She sat up on the lounge so that I'd have more room.  
I scooted along the lounge to sit closer to her. "That's okay Michaela. Now that you know why you hate Alisha and have admitted it we can try to fix the problem." I put my arm around her. "Just because I love Alisha doesn't mean I don't love you. She's my girlfriend and you're my sweet, bubbly sister. Or at least, you usually are." I laughed and Michaela gave a little smile. "I can love you both in different ways."  
Michaela smiled. "I hope so."  
We sat back to watch Ricki. It was really funny! They were all dancing around showing us their underwear. And they weren't exactly attractive women, either. It seemed that no intelligent, good looking people ever went on talk shows. I remembered the studio audience when I went on Oprah and shuddered. Ick!  
"Hey...." a sleepy voice said. "What are you watching?"  
It was Grubbery. "Ricki Lake," Michaela said cheerfully. "Do you want me to get you some breakfast?"  
"Yeah, that would be great," Grubbery said. We all walked out into the kitchen. Michaela fixed Grubbery some breakfast and we all sat down at the table. "So, what happened to you guys after the parents sent you away?"  
"They didn't send us away, they put us in the attic," Michaela replied.  
"I know," Grubbery said, "But what happened?"  
Michaela and I looked at one another. "Well, when we first went up into the attic we thought it was only going to be for a few days, until our mother convinced our father that the band couldn't survive without me," I began.  
"Which it couldn't," Grubbery said bitterly.  
"Mmmm," I continued. "Anyway we stayed there for about a month until we were temporarily let down into the rest of the house because you and Neuton went on tour. The house was locked, so we couldn't get out."  
"And we were too stupid to think of bashing our way out the window," Michaela added.  
I frowned. "Because we thought we'd be back in the family soon," I explained. We didn't want to make ourselves look bad. "The tour failed, as I'm sure you know and as soon as you guys returned we were sent back up into the attic."  
"Tay went into a deep depression because there was now no possibility of him going back to the band and becoming a teen idol again. After a few weeks we got back to normal and started working on painting and writing and our school work. We knew we wouldn't be in the attic forever and wanted to make the most of the time we spent there," Michaela said.  
"Our parents gave us a television set for our birthday," I added. "After that the days didn't drag on as much."  
Michaela laughed. "Tay liked to watch sex shows! You should have seen -" Michaela cut herself off.  
Now was not the time to tell Grubbery about our little...... thing. "Anyway, Michaela had been going through our family history for some time when she finally found out the family secret," I said.  
Grubbery laughed. "Family secret??"  
Michaela frowned. "It's not funny Grubbery, it's gross." She paused. "Okay, remember how I used to live with an adopted grandmother?" Grubbery nodded. "Well it turns out that she's our real grandmother," Michaela took a deep breath in. "Annabelle Morgan married Roger Manson and had fraternal twins named Fergie and Skipper."  
Grubbery gasped.  
"Well, obviously they fell in love and got married," I continued, "When they gave birth to fraternal twins who looked so alike," I said, pointing to Michaela and myself. "They decided to get rid of the daughter so that history would not repeat itself. That's why Michaela went to live with our rich grandmother."  
Grubbery frowned. "And did history repeat itself?" he joked.  
Michaela and I looked at each other. "Nope," she said.  
"Not at all," I added. "Not with us."  
"So when you guys went on your family holiday last year, Tay and I took the chance we needed and escaped," Michaela took up the story again. "We moved to my old house in LA and went to San Fernando Valley High School. I met these girls who I thought were nice and started to date this guy on the basketball team called Rod. Anyway, Rod tried to have sex with me and when I wouldn't he spread rumours about me around the school."  
"Michaela's been really depressed lately," I explained. "Because of the attic."  
"Well that's understandable," Grubbery acknowledged. "Even in the summarised version...."  
"I started dating this girl called Alisha. She is really beautiful and lovely. You'll really like her," I said.  
"If I meet her...." Grubbery commented.  
"We found out about you on Entertainment Tonight and here we are now," Michaela said.  
"What's been happening to you?" I asked Grubbery.  
Grubbery frowned. "After you went up to the attic, Neuton and I tried to keep the band going. We made the Christmas album, went on tour, but everybody hated us. They knew something was up. No one really believed that you'd gone off to live with your 'girlfriend', they all thought we'd murdered you."  
"Which was sort of true," Michaela said wryly.  
Grubbery nodded. "Anyway, we came back to Tulsa and went back to living our lives the way we did before Manson. But it wasn't the same at all. I really missed the two of you, especially Tay - because I knew him better - and something weird was going on with our parents. Our mother would disappear every night at the same time - to feed you I suppose - and there was something different about our parent's attitude. It was although something evil had been awakened in them. By the time my thirteenth birthday came around I was a totally different person - I was into grunge and stuff and I wasn't getting along with the rest of the family at all." he paused. "Especially Elizabeth," he added, "She is such a little bimbo."  
I smiled. "Isn't everyone at that age?"  
Grubbery frowned. "I wasn't. I wasn't weird and hyperactive."  
"Whatever, Grub," I said, letting it go.  
"So when I found out that you guys had been in the attic everything got worse. I was the only child in the family who'd figured it out. Neuton may have known, but he was pretending he didn't, probably to preserve his perfect image of our parents. I've been giving our parents hell about what they did to you for the past year."  
"Good," Michaela said. "It's nice to know we're not the only ones being punished."  
"No you're not," Grubbery said. "And things are going to get worse for them, much worse." 


	4. You Burned Me Out But I'm Back At Your D...

Chapter 4 - "You Burned Me Out But I'm Back At Your Door" - Grubbery's  
Story  
April 8th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
Bang bang. Bang bang bang. Bang bang bang. I shot at the television screen. Tweedle-Tay had brought his Playstation with him to Tulsa, which was a good thing because I didn't really feel like going back home to get mine. "Wow, Grub," he said, as my new high score flashed up against the screen. "You are so much better at this than I am. You make me feel like such a loser....."  
I laughed. "Come on Tay, you've been living in LA for the past year and I've been in Tulsa - the most boring place on earth. There isn't anything to do BUT play video games." I handed him the controls.  
He took them and began to shoot. Bang bang bang. "You could go out to parties," he suggested. "You don't have to live in a big city to go to parties...."  
I snickered. "Tweedle-Tay! You should know better! You lived with me for fourteen and a half years. You know our parents don't let us go to parties, that's why we had to make our own parties," I said wistfully, thinking of the fun we used to have.  
"Then why don't you do that?" he asked.  
"And who would I party with? Elizabeth?" I said sarcastically. "I'm not all that fond of Aaron Carter."  
"Whatever...." Tweedle-Tay replied, becoming disinterested.  
I'd been staying with Tay and Kay for a few days now. It was kind of weird, I hadn't known Michaela all that long and I hadn't seen Tweedle-Tay for two and a half years.... but we all seemed to have kind of similar philosophies, so we were getting on okay. I felt like a bit of an outsider sometimes, because the other two were so close, but, considering that, everything was going pretty well. Bang bang. Bang bang bang bang.  
"Tweedle-Tay!" Michaela walked into the room, annoyed. "Why are you playing that awful game?"  
Tweedle-Tay and I turned around to face her. She was standing there in a little pink dress, frowning, with her hands on her hips. Tweedle- Tay's character was shot and his game was over. "I thought you hated pink- Barbie-girls, Michaela," Tweedle-Tay said, teasing her.  
"I do," she said sheepishly. "But yesterday I was at the Woodland Hills Mall and I saw it and it just looked so pretty and I had to have it. It's not often that you find designer clothes in Tulsa...." She frowned. "But that's not the point. I thought you'd given up paintball and guns and shooting things Tay. I've told you before, it's not fun, it's -"  
"Pretending to kill things," Tay cut in. "I know. But this isn't paintball, it's Playstation. Have a go, I'm sure you'll like it."  
Michaela shook her head and sat down. "No, it's okay."  
Tweedle-Tay turned back to the screen. "Shit Michaela! I'm dead. You totally stuffed up my turn."  
I took the control from him. "And that means it's my turn..."  
"Actually," Michaela said. "I was thinking that we could do something else. Like....." she paused. "Talk."  
"Talk?" I asked in disbelief. Why would anyone want to talk when they had a video game?  
"What about?" Tweedle-Tay asked, more obligingly. Living with a girl for two and half years must have feminised him.  
"Well, Tay and I are in Oklahoma doing - nothing. We've checked on you Grub and you're okay, so we don't really have a purpose," Michaela said. They were leaving already?  
"We can't leave Michaela," Tweedle-Tay said. "We can't make Grubbery go back to living with our parents." That was for sure.  
"I don't think we should leave," Michaela replied. "I just think we should do something. Something other than playing with the Playstation and watching TV."  
"Such as?" I asked. They seemed like pretty good pastimes to me.  
"Don't get me wrong," Michaela said. "It's just that we can do those things, and more, in LA. We have to do something that we can only do in Tulsa." She paused and sighed. "I guess you both know about how upset I am, inside, about our parents and the attic. And when Tweedle-Tay and I were in LA there was nothing we could do about it. But now that we're in Tulsa we can do something to make it less painful for us."  
"Or more painful for our parents." As usual Tweedle-Tay was thinking along the same wavelength as Michaela.  
"Revenge," I added.  
Michaela smiled. "Well yeah. We've all been damaged by our parents. Why should we suffer and not them?"  
I liked this girl. Even if she did spend half an hour getting ready every morning and was a little preppy, she had the right ideas on the left side. "No reason at all," I said.  
"We'll make a revenge plan!" Tweedle-Tay said excitedly, getting up and finding himself a pen and paper. He sat down again.  
There was silence. "So what are we gonna do?" I asked.  
Michaela shrugged. "We should expose them for all that they've done to us." She thought for a few seconds. "You two would have media connections - sort of - and we can get a tele-broadcast about their abuse of us. The whole country would see and they'd be punished by the law."  
Tweedle-Tay smiled and scribbled down the idea. "Perfect," he said.  
Michaela smiled happily. "It is good," I agreed, "But it's not enough."  
Tweedle-Tay raised his eyebrows. "Like how?"  
"Well sure, if we did that they'd be punished for their actions, but they wouldn't have suffered the mental anguish we all - and especially the two of you - have suffered," I pointed out.  
"But how can we do that?" Michaela asked.  
I thought for a few seconds. What would upset our parents more than anything else? Of course. Religion. "Well you know how pious our parents are?"  
"How could we forget?" Michaela said sarcastically.  
"Tay and I know a lot about Christianity, everything they taught us, so all we have to do is drop a few hints to them that God is not pleased with them," I explained.  
"Like he would be," Tay added. "Abuse, neglect, cruelty, attempted murder...."  
"Incest," I added helpfully.  
Michaela and Tweedle-Tay nodded. "It's shocking," Michaela said.  
"So we should leave signs around our house, signs that imply that God knows about how bad they've been," I went on.  
"Such as?" Michaela asked.  
"We could take all the crosses in the house and put them upside down!" Tweedle-Tay said excitedly, scribbling down his idea.  
"Good," I approved. "We could take the Christening candles," I saw the look of shock on Tay's face. "Not ours," I reassured him. "And put them in the shape on five pointed stars...."  
Tweedle-Tay nodded and wrote that down as well.  
"And we could write messages about how we know what they've done. Make it look supernatural," Michaela suggested.  
For someone who was not a Christian, Michaela was pretty good at this. There was a silence as Tweedle-Tay wrote down Michaela's idea and we all thought some more. "We could smear blood on their wedding photos," Tweedle-Tay suggested.  
I nodded. "Yeah, that's good..... Michaela, when do you get your period?"  
Michaela gasped. She knew exactly where I was heading. She shook her head. "There is no way you're getting me to do that," she said.  
"Oh come on," I pleaded. "It's easy access to blood. It would be very...." I looked at Tweedle-Tay, searching for the right word.  
"Satanical," he suggested, shrugging.  
"Yeah," I said, nodding. "It would really freak them out. Way more than any other blood. When do you get your period, Michaela?"  
Michaela frowned and sighed. "Now," she said reluctantly. "I'll do it, but I'm only doing it because I hate them so much."  
"Great then, we'll do that part tomorrow," I said, as Tweedle-Tay wrote down my idea.  
We sat in silence. "Well, if that's all we'll get back to the Playstation," I said, looking for a less violent game, for Michaela's sake. She was doing me a favour, so I'd do one for her.  
"Wait!" she said quickly. "I know just the show we can go on!" She moved closer to Tweedle-Tay and whispered in his ear.  
He gave her the thumbs up. "Brilliant," he said. "No wonder you're the smart twin."  
"I don't think so, Mr. 1st-in-Music," she replied. She walked over to me and whispered in my ear.  
"Excellent," I said softly. Our revenge was going to be just great. 


	5. Mama I Love You

Chapter 5 - "Mama, I Love You" - Michaela's Story  
April 9th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"Don't they have lives?" I asked, looking through my binoculars at our family getting into their van. It was a Sunday morning and they were all going off to church, giving us virtually our only chance to get into the house.  
"They leaving?" Tweedle-Tay asked, holding out his hand. I handed him the binoculars and he looked towards our parents.  
Grubbery laughed. "You should know they don't have lives Michaela, you did live with them for one and a half years!"  
I frowned. "Yes, but I was in the attic - remember!"  
Our parents began to drive along Stoneybrook Crescent, towards us. We all moved quickly behind a hedge, in one blonde pack. As soon as they'd passed we got up and started to walk down the street towards the car. "So Grubbery, how exactly are we going to get into the house?" I asked casually. Anything to avoid thinking about the grotty thing I'd have to do once we actually got into the house.  
Grubbery rolled his eyes. "Spare keys dummy! I know where they are."  
"Underneath the blue garden gnome?" Tweedle-Tay asked.  
Grubbery nodded. "Yeah."  
As we neared the house I felt shivers go up and down my spine. I was so silly! It was just a pretty, brick house with a picket fence in the middle of suburbia. There was nothing creepy about it on the outside really, it was only the things that happened on the inside. "Why are you shivering, Michaela?" Tweedle-Tay asked, concerned. "Are you sick?"  
"No," I replied, shaking my head. "Just cold."  
He laughed. "It's thirty degrees outside Michaela!"  
"Is it?" I asked. "Oh yeah, it is," I said, laughing weakly.  
We opened the picket fence and walked into the front garden. Grubbery strolled over to the garden gnome and lifted it. Sure enough, there were the keys. He lifted them up and we all walked towards the front door in a forced casual fashion. "What if the neighbours see us?" I asked nervously.  
Tay and Grub laughed. "They wouldn't be around to see us!" Tweedle- Tay said.  
"We're smack bang in the middle of the Bible-belt," Grubbery added. "Everyone's at church."  
"Yeah," Tay added, with a note of guilt in his voice. Really! He hadn't been to church since we'd been in the attic! Now was no time to start feeling guilty.  
"That's good," I said. Grubbery unlocked the door and we all walked inside, Tay shutting the door behind us. I heard footsteps running towards us and screeched and ducked. Tweedle-Tay managed to give me a pissed off look in his panic.  
A tabby cat came bounding down the hallway towards us. "Mama!" Tweedle-Tay exclaimed in joy, picking the cat up and stroking it. "Oh Mama! It's been so long since I've seen you!" The cat was equally affectionate towards Tweedle-Tay.  
"Tay bought Mama when he was eleven," Grubbery whispered to me. I nodded and Grubbery and I walked into the lounge room, leaving Tweedle-Tay in the kitchen with his cat. "They keep their wedding photos in this cupboard," Grubbery explained, opening up an old, wooden, cupboard.  
"I'll help you look," I said. Grubbery and I started to glimpse through the old photo albums, looking for our parents' wedding photos. I opened up the first album which had photo's of Tweedle-Tay when he was little. His fifth birthday. He was sticking his tongue out at the camera. It was sooo cute! I wished I had been there, but I wasn't and I'd never be able to go there. Because of our parents, I was deprived of normal sibling relationships.  
"Kay?" Grub said. "Here are the wedding photos...." he said handing me a photo album.  
I gave him a little smile. "Thanks," I said, although I didn't really mean it. "Would you mind leaving while I......?"  
"Sure," Grub said. "I'll just go off to hang out with Tay." He hastily left the room.  
I looked through the photo album. This was going to be the hardest thing I ever intentionally did. I mean, when you picture this sort of thing, don't you just think of a girl with a grubby face, wearing rags? But this wasn't how it was. This was a girl with a perfectly made up face and designer clothes. A girl who had it all but was all messed up. Michaela. A preppy girl from Beverly Hills was sticking her hand up her dress and smearing blood on her parents' wedding photos.  
When I'd finished I threw the photos around the room and walked out. When I got to the kitchen I washed my hands with soap and sat down at the table. Grubbery was talking to Tweedle-Tay, who was still stroking the cat. "You finished?" Grubbery asked.  
I nodded. Tweedle-Tay smiled sympathetically. "Thanks Michaela. I know that must have been hard for you. I'll bet it was icky..."  
I nodded again. "I would say it was okay, but, you know, it's not the sort of thing I want to do again...."  
Grubbery walked over to the fridge. "Do you want something? An apple?"  
I shook my head. "No thanks. I think I'll just get something at the general store.... I don't really want to be here," I said, standing up.  
My brothers nodded sympathetically and got up from the table. We quickly walked out of the house. Once we got onto the street we walked three-abreast, Tweedle-Tay with his arm around my shoulder and Grubbery on my other side, his arm linked through mine. I gave them a little smile. "Oh well, I guess they'll be pretty shocked," I managed to say.  
"That's for sure," Grubbery agreed.  
"You know what?" Tweedle-Tay said. "I think we all deserve a treat!"  
We walked up to the general store at the intersection with Myrtle Street. "TimTams?" I suggested.  
Tay nodded and picked them up from the shelf. I picked up a two litre bottle of Pepsi and Grubbery got some Kettle Chips. Ooooo. Yummy. Tweedle-Tay paid for the food and we all walked outside. When we got out on the street I felt Tay's arm move away from me as he turned around. I looked behind me to see this tall, thin, blonde, girl walking into the store. Typical Tweedle-Tay. "What about Alisha?" I asked casually.  
"Oh, she won't mind," he answered. "I didn't even talk to her."  
Oh well, at least the girl at the general store was blonde! 


	6. Like Jesus Christ Coming Back From The D...

Chapter 6 - "Like Jesus Christ Coming Back From The Dead" - Tweedle-Tay's  
Story  
April 11th, 2000 - Tulsa Oklahoma  
  
"They've gone out!" Grubbery said, puffing as he ran into the house. We'd been taking it in turns, watching the house, waiting for everyone to leave for a couple of days.  
"All of them?" I asked cautiously.  
Grubbery nodded. "Come on!" he said, dragging Michaela and me up from the couch. "Who knows how soon they'll be back!"  
We quickly made our way out of the house and down the street. We were becoming a regular little group of guerrillas. Except that, well, I was wearing jeans and Michaela refused to wear any sort of pants. Not in public, anyway. But Grubbery was dressed in army clothes.  
He made a face. "Kay, would you mind not wearing red?"  
"Why?" she asked, surprised.  
"Red's my favourite colour," I added.  
Grubbery sighed. "It's a bit of a standout colour. I'll buy you some cargo pants if you like...."  
You should have seen the look of horror that came over Michaela's face. Grubbery obviously didn't know her as well as I did. She shook her head. "No. There is no way you're getting me to wear those icky pants. I'd look so fat in them!" She paused. "Besides Grub, if you ask me, you are far more conspicuous in your clothes than Tay and I are."  
"Whatever," Grubbery replied.  
When we got into the front garden Grubbery lifted the garden gnome and handed it to me, taking the spare keys. Our parents were so dumb! As if you wouldn't move the spare keys after your house had been broken into. When we got into the house we quickly got to work. I went up to the attic and brought down all of the Christening candles (except mine and Grubbery's). We all arranged them in the shape of five pointed stars, one in each room of the house. When we'd finished we stood back to admire our work. It looked really cool (and creepy).  
Grubbery shook his head. "It's not enough," he said, taking the garden gnome from me. He walked into the lounge room and bashed the window with the gnome. The glass shattered. Michaela gave a little squeal and I nudged her so that she'd be quiet. We didn't want the neighbours to hear! Grubbery preceded to bash away all the glass in the loungeroom.  
Michaela didn't stay quiet for long. "Whatever happened to being inconspicuous?" she asked, in a strained, quiet, voice.  
"We're not doing enough!" Grubbery replied angrily. He ran into the kitchen and smashed in the windows there. What the hell was the point of this? I decided not to say anything because, well, Grubbery had that gnome in his hand and I didn't really want it to connect with my head.  
Michaela was not thinking like me though and started to freak. "Stop it Grubbery!" she said loudly. "This is stupid and pointless. The neighbours are going to call the police!" she squealed, jumping up and down. When Grubbery ignored her she said, "Fine then, don't listen! I'm not sticking around - I'm leaving!"  
She turned around and walked out of the house. I groaned. "Grub, come on, stop it!" He ignored me too. I grabbed the gnome from him.  
"Hey!" he yelled. "Give it back!"  
"Don't be silly Grub," I said calmly. "I think they'll get the message."  
"No they-" Grubbery began, but I interrupted him.  
"Do you have any idea how much noise we've been making?" I asked. "We've got to get out quickly."  
I guided Grubbery out of the door and locked it, returning the gnome and keys to their places. Grubbery ran off down the street and I followed him.  
  
*******************  
  
When Grubbery and I got back to the house Michaela was lying on the lounge watching television. "Why the hell did you do that Grubbery?" Michaela asked, pissed off.  
He shrugged. "Revenge!"  
Michaela shook her head. "This is stupid," she said. "Can't we just get on with the important part?" She looked and me with big eyes and smiled. "I could call the station right now."  
"No!" Grubbery replied harshly. He softened his voice. "They haven't suffered enough mental anguish." He turned around and left the room.  
Michaela smiled weakly. "What's his problem?"  
I shrugged. "He's upset, I guess."  
She rolled her eyes. "We were the ones locked in the attic Tay and even we aren't that upset." Michaela paused. "Has he always been like this?"  
I hated it when people forced me to do this! There was no way I was going to take sides. Sure, Grubbery was being a little extreme, but that didn't mean I was going to bitch about him. I shrugged and walked over to the phone.  
"Well?" Michaela repeated. "What are you doing?"  
I picked up the phone and started to dial. "Calling Alisha." 


	7. Dream A Little Dream

Chapter 7 - "Dream a Little Dream" - Michaela's Story  
April 16th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
I brushed my hair one hundred times and put on my dressing gown. I walked out of the bathroom and into..... the attic? What the hell was I doing there? I'd left the attic a year ago. I looked across the attic to my bed. Tweedle-Tay was lying there, his face pressed up against my 'Sixteen' magazine. "Ew! Yuck! What are you doing?" I yelled, running over to grab the magazine from him.  
"Kissing Alisha," he replied, holding up the picture of Alisha. What was Alisha doing in 'Sixteen'? She wasn't pretty enough to be a model.  
I snatched the magazine from him and looked at it. 'Alisha Reed - the most loved, perfect, girl' the article heading said. "Why is Alisha in the magazine?" I asked my brother.  
"Because everybody loves her," he replied nastily. "More than you, anyway!"  
That couldn't be true! Everyone was supposed to like me - not Alisha! At least, there had to be someone out there who liked me, hadn't there? "More than me?" I repeated softly. "Why are you kissing the poster then?" I asked.  
"Because then I can pretend that it's the girl I really want to kiss...." Tweedle-Tay replied.  
"And who might that be?" Cindy Crawford?  
"What I really want," my brother replied. "Is to kill you!" Oh no! It was Skipper, not Tweedle-Tay! It was my father.  
"No!" I screamed, running to the attic steps. The door was locked. "No!"  
"Yes!" my father insisted. "I'm going to kill-"  
"Michaela?" Tweedle-Tay asked.  
"Oh good - you're here to save me," I said groggily, opening my eyes.  
"Michaela, you're awake!" Tweedle-Tay said with relief. I looked around me. It wasn't the attic, it was our rented house. Tweedle-Tay wasn't kissing posters of Alisha. Thank god! The world hadn't gone mad. Alisha wasn't a cover girl. "Michaela?"  
"Huh?" I asked. "Sorry, I was thinking about the dream....."  
"Michaela, do you have any idea what time it is?" Tweedle-Tay asked. he didn't wait for a reply. "It's nine-thirty. Our parents will be leaving for church any minute. We have to get to their house as soon as possible."  
Without any make-up on? I shot out of bed like a bullet. "Sorry Tay, you're going to have to wait half an hour," I said, going through the clothes in my closet. Was there nothing I hadn't worn already? I spotted a navy-blue cardigan and knit skirt. Oh well, that was good enough..... Now all I needed was a t-shirt.  
"Half an hour?" Tweedle-Tay repeated in disbelief.  
I grabbed a top out of the closet and looked him up and down. "Well you're in your pajamas too," I replied. "Hair? Make-up? Clothes? You know you have to warn me half an hour before you want to leave...." I said, running out of my bedroom and into the bathroom.  
Soon I was dressed and walked back out into the loungeroom. I could hear Tweedle-Tay and Grubbery playing basketball in the front yard. How dare they not include me! So much for being in a hurry. I walked outside. "I'm ready," I said, my hands on my hips.  
We all walked down the street to Stoneybrook Crescent and our family home. Thirteen was such a creepy number. It was fitting that a weird family would live in a house with a creepy number. Grubbery picked up the blue garden gnome and Tay took the house keys. "I hope you're not going to do anything psycho with the gnome today," I said to Grubbery.  
He blushed. "No," he said, putting it back. Today was Sunday and we were planning to turn all the crosses in the house upside down. Apparently this was a sign of the devil. We walked up the garden path and unlocked the door. Once we were inside Mama came running up to us, as she usually did. And as usual Tay showered her with affection. Sometimes I wished that I were a cat so that Tweedle-Tay would be that nice to me. Not that I wanted him to be in love with me or anything. I mean, that would be gross - Tweedle-Tay was my brother!  
I walked into the loungeroom and began to turn the crosses upside down. I had to do something really nice for Tweedle-Tay so that he'd like me better than Alisha, like he used to. I had been more cheerful lately, AND I'd been hiding my hate for the short, skinny, redhead, but still, I obviously had to do something more. Why had he liked me in the first place? Because I was pretty and dressed nicely. Well I still looked and dressed exactly the same. I had been thinner in the attic..... Tweedle- Tay could go fuck himself if he wanted me to give up my TimTams. He thought I was smart and bubbly. Well I was still smart, maybe less cheerful. Oh, how I wanted to be cheerful so that Tweedle-Tay would love me again. But it seemed really inappropriate to be totally cheerful in this sort of situation. I would be more cheerful once the revenge was over with. Yes. I had also been really supportive of Tweedle-Tay when we were in the attic. But now I was the more depressed twin and I needed his support more than he needed mine. Still, it was the only thing I could do. I would try to be more sensitive towards Tweedle-Tay's and Grubbery's needs. Then I would have everything that Tweedle-Tay used to like about me. He wouldn't want Alisha then.  
"Michaela?" Grubbery asked impatiently. "You haven't even finished the loungeroom! Tay and I have done the whole house and you haven't even finished the loungeroom!" Tweedle-Tay followed him into the room.  
Well sorry! Maybe I was thinking about more important things, like how to make people happy, rather than making them emotional wrecks. I smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry Grub," I said nicely, "I'll do them now," I added. I quickly turned the remaining crosses upside down.  
"Good," Grubbery said, nodding firmly.  
"Thanks Kay," Tweedle-Tay smiled.  
"We really should get going...." I said slowly. "The rest of..... them.... will be back soon and we don't want them to see us."  
"Not yet," Grubbery added.  
We all walked out of the lounge room and towards the front door. "I don't want to leave Mama again," Tweedle-Tay said in a rushed voice. "We know what they've done to us, I don't like the thought of them doing the same to her."  
"I don't know Tay....." Grubbery said softly.  
I smiled. "I think it would be great if we kept Mama," I said brightly. "After the revenge is complete we'd have to take her in anyway. A couple of weeks won't make that much difference."  
"That's true," Grubbery agreed.  
"So you guys don't mind?" Tweedle-Tay asked. Grubbery and I shook our heads. "Cool!" he said, almost skipping out the door, with Mama in his arms.  
"Hey!" I said, as we began to walk down Stoneybrook Crescent. "Do you guys want to go out this afternoon?"  
"Where to?" Tweedle-Tay asked.  
"How about Bell's Amusement Park?" I suggested. "My treat!"  
"Cool!" Grubbery said excitedly. "Can we go on the Demon?"  
"Thanks Michaela," Tweedle-Tay said appreciatively.  
I smiled. Being 'Nice-Michaela' was going to be just great. 


	8. What You Reap Is What You Sew

Chapter 8 - "What you reap is what you sew" - Skipper's Story  
April 16th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"Our Aaron, who art in Florida, crazy be thy name," Elizabeth and Kestrel said, their eyes closed and hands pressed together. They opened their eyes and giggled.  
We were all on our way home from church, like every other Sunday. It seemed that as the years went by, there were less and less children in the car when, considering how much sex Fergie and I were having, there should have been more and more. Neuton had gone back to college, where he was studying accounting, and now, after Grubbery's disappearance, Elizabeth was the oldest person in the car.  
"Stop it Elizabeth!" Fergie said impatiently. "You shouldn't take God's name in vain like that."  
Elizabeth removed her eyeliner from her handbag and smiled. "But Aaron is godly. He getting taller every day. He'll be five foot tall soon."  
How I wished Grubbery was here. Sure, he was badly behaved, but he'd put Elizabeth in her place, with Aaron and the eyeliner. Fergie smiled. "But honey, aren't you 5'1"?"  
It was up to me now. "Elizabeth, put the make-up away!" I said, giving her a nasty look through the rear view mirror.  
"Why Daddy?" she said, smearing pink lipstick across her lips.  
"I told you to put it away!" I yelled. Elizabeth quickly put it the lipstick back into her bag. "You're not even twelve years old, for goodness sake. No one your age wears makeup!"  
"Makeup is for sissy girls," Kestrel said.  
"Like Aaron Carter," added MacArthy. Even I had to laugh at that one.  
"Aaron is 100% male," Elizabeth pouted.  
Fergie smiled at her warmly. "I'm sure he is, honey. The reason your daddy doesn't want you to wear makeup is because you look so beautiful already without it."  
"Can I have an ice-cream Mommy?" Mozzie asked, piping up from the back part of the van.  
"When we get inside, sweetie," Fergie replied, as we pulled into the driveway.  
We all got out of the car and walked up to the house. Kestrel ran ahead and, as she usually did, turned the knob. What was unusual was that the knob opened. Had someone broken in? "Kestrel! Don't go into the house!" I called. She ignored me and I ran after her into the house. There was no one there. I picked her up and she squealed. "Kestrel! Don't you ever do that again!" I said, hugging her. "When I tell you something you obey, okay?"  
"Okay Daddy," she said and I put her down.  
The others came into the house. "Is everything okay?" Elizabeth asked.  
I nodded. "No one's here."  
"Ice cream!" Mozzie nagged, tugging on Fergie's dress.  
"Okay hun," Fergie said and we all walked into the kitchen. Fergie walked over to the freezer and was about to open the door when -  
"Oh my God!" she said urgently. "Skipper!" She pointed towards the freezer door. The cross that we usually hung there was hanging... upside down.  
"Oh my God," I said, walking over. I moved the cross so that it was facing the right way.  
"Mommy, Daddy, has the devil been here?" MacArthy asked nervously.  
"Uh, no, no, no honey," Fergie, said ushering him away. "Go on kids, go play." Fergie ushered the children out of the room. She turned to me. "Skipper, do you think he knows what we -"  
"Mom," Elizabeth asked. She was still standing in the doorway. "Now that Grubbery's gone I think it's really unfair that me and Mozzie and Kestrel have to share a room and MacArthy has one all to himself. Can Mozzie move in with MacArthy?"  
"Elizabeth! Now is neither the time nor the place-" I began.  
"Sure sweetie. Would you mind leaving your father and I to talk now?" Fergie asked sweetly.  
Elizabeth shrugged. "Sure. You might be interested to know that all the other crosses are upside down too," she said, walking away.  
"He knows," I said. "First the blood, then the candles, now this!"  
"He knows about the incest and the abuse," Fergie sighed. "Oh God! Why did you leave it until now to punish us????" she said, falling to the floor and looking up at the sky. "Is there anything we can do to make it all better."  
I looked down at her with disgust. "Oh for God's sake woman! Get up." She obeyed. "What's done, is done. We must do something for repentance. Show the Lord that we are sorry."  
Fergie nodded. "Lord we are sorry for what we have done. Sorry we sent Michaela away, sorry we put the twins in the attic, sorry we corrupted Neuton, sorry we had sexual relations, sorry we put Grubbery in a coma, sorry we forgot to teach our children about -"  
"Daddy?" MacArthy asked, walking into the room.  
Fergie stopped apologising to God. "What's wrong Mackie?" I asked.  
He ran over to me and started to cry. "It's Mama! She's gone! I've looked for her everywhere, but she's gone." MacArthy had been looking after Mama for the past couple of years, ever since Tweedle-Tay had left.  
"She's probably just gone for a walk," I comforted him.  
"Cats do that sometimes," Fergie added.  
MacArthy shook his head. "No, I locked her inside before we left. She couldn't possibly have gone for a walk. Someone stole her!" he whined.  
"It's okay, sweetie," Fergie replied. "She'll be home soon. I'll bet she's back for dinner." She played with his hair. "Your hair's getting a bit long, isn't it? It's past your ears. Time for a trim!" she said cheerfully, leading our son our of the room.  
Had God stolen Mama when he turned the crosses upside down? No. That couldn't be. It must have been...... 


	9. Boys On The Radio

Chapter 9 - "Boys On The Radio" - Grubbery's Story  
April 17, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"See my vest, see my vest made of real gorilla chest," Mr. Burns sang. I was watching an old Simpsons repeat. I laughed to myself. This episode was so funny, one of my favourites. I loved the way the parodied '101 Dalmatians'. Tweedle-Tay had gone out to the mall and Michaela was doing school work in her room. Physics, I think. That would explain all the depressed moaning coming from her bedroom.  
"I really like the vest," Mr. Burns said. I laughed. So funny! There was a knock at the door.  
"Michaela, will you get it?" I called out.  
"Grubbery!" she moaned. "Do you have any idea how hard electrostatics is? How could you even think for a second -"  
"Okay, okay," I replied, reluctantly getting up from the television to answer the door. I should be doing school work too actually. Tweedle- Tay and Michaela were doing theirs. Still, Mom wasn't setting me any homework. Sure, that may have had something to do with me not being at home, but still. I opened the door.  
Tweedle-Tay grabbed my hand and dragged me outside. "Grub!" he said excitedly. "You wouldn't believe what I've just bought!"  
I stumbled down the step and followed him out into the front garden. There was a van sitting on the street outside our house. "A van?" I asked in disbelief. That wasn't very exciting. Tweedle-Tay and Michaela already had a nice car in LA. A crummy old van wasn't very good.  
Tay shook his head and walked towards the van. I followed him. "No silly!" he replied, still cheerful. "It's what's in the van that counts." Two slightly overweight middle aged men got out of the van. Oh no! Tweedle-Tay hadn't hired male prostitutes, had he? "I bought a keyboard and a drum kit," he said, smiling as he turned to me.  
"Yes!" I said enthusiastically. I stopped in my tracks and shook my head. "Michaela is going to kill you. You already have a keyboard and a piano at your house....."  
Tweedle-Tay shook his head and laughed. "I didn't use Michaela's money. I took it out of your Manson money." Seeing the look of shock on my face he continued. "The parents took half of my money and put it in your account. Part of your money is rightfully mine."  
I disagreed, but couldn't be bothered arguing. The men removed the instruments from the van and began to carry them into the house. "Now we can start up the band again," Tweedle-Tay said happily. "Except this time it'll be even better."  
I nodded. "We can be like Tool. Or the Smashing Pumpkins. Or the Offspring. Or Pearl Jam." I went to hug Tweedle-Tay but quickly stopped myself. "You rock Tay."  
"Thanks," he said, looking pleased with himself.  
It took a while to set up the instruments in the loungeroom but once we had finished we got to work. "I've been writing some lyrics," Tweedle- Tay said. "We can use them in our very first grunge song."  
"Wow!" I said, equally excited. "I've been writing lyrics too."  
We began to jam. It sounded really good. Really grungy. Tweedle- Tay sounded great. He sounded angry, like, really mad. "Hey my little baby girl, you know you brighten up my world. Just why is it that you can't see - you are the only one for me? Oh! Ooooo!"  
It was going great. Maybe we'd make it to number 1 again, some time in the future. "Oh. Baby. Oh. Baby," Tay sang.  
Michaela walked out into the loungeroom and laughed. "What are you guys doing?" she asked cheerfully.  
"He used my money," I said quickly.  
"Grubbery and I are reforming the band," Tweedle-Tay explained.  
"Really?" Michaela asked sweetly.  
"This time we're going grunge," Tweedle-Tay continued.  
"We want to be the voice of Generation Next. Like, what Nirvana was to Generation X," I added.  
Michaela smiled. "Really? Can I listen?"  
"Sure," I replied.  
We started to jam again. "Sparkling eyes light up the sky. Girl I love you, my oh my!" Tweedle-Tay sang again. "Ooooo yeah!"  
Michaela burst out laughing. "A grunge band????" she asked through her laughter. "A grunge band????"  
I frowned. "What's wrong with us being a grunge band?" I asked defensively.  
Michaela smiled and sat down. "Nothing. It's just that...." she paused and smiled. "Well, for starters, you can't have a grunge band with a keyboardist and a drummer. It's not very grungy, if you know what I mean."  
"Well, we can be original," Tweedle-Tay replied. "We can be the first grunge band like us."  
Michaela nodded slowly and made a face. "A secondly.... your lyrics. I mean, please! 'Girl I love you, my oh my!' What sort of grunge lyric is that? It sounds like the Backstreet Boys..... gone wrong!" She laughed, and paused. "Oh sorry! That was really mean of me. I didn't actually mean that. Nothing could be as bad as the Backstreet Boys."  
"I'll say," I said bitterly. I turned to Tweedle-Tay. "I think we sound grungy," I said.  
"Me too," he agreed. "Besides Michaela, can you do any better?"  
"Actually," she replied. "Yes." She ran back into her room.  
"I'd like to see this," Tay said to me.  
"Michaela won't be as grungy as we are. Look at her clothes. She's a regular little prep," I told him.  
Michaela walked back out into the loungeroom and sat back down. "Okay," she said. "This is a song I wrote about the superficiality of LA." She cleared her throat. "Swing low, sweet cherry, make it awful. It's your life, it's your party, it's so awful. Let's start a fire, let's have a riot! Yeah it's awful. It was punk, yeah, it was perfect now it's awful. And they know how to break all the girls like you. And they rob the souls of the girls like you. And they break the hearts of the girls.... Swing low, cherry, cherry, yeah it's awful. He's drunk, he tastes like candy, he's so beautiful. He's so deep, like dirty water, god he's awful. Your lost, oh where's your Daddy - it's so awful. And they royalty rate all the girls like you. And they sell it out to the girls like you. To incorporate little girls. Hey, run away with the light, run away it's divine, let's run away, yeah tonight-"  
"Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay said angrily. "That doesn't sound grungy at all. It sounds like a Blondie song." I nodded in agreement, even though I didn't know who Blondie were.  
Michaela blushed. "Well I'm sure that if it had distorted guitar behind it, it would sound grungy."  
Tay rolled his eyes. "Well I'm sure 'Baby Girl' would too."  
"Whatever," Michaela said, shaking her head. "Have your grunge band, have your fun. I was just being honest."  
"As were we," I added. "You are NOT a grunge chick, Michaela."  
Michaela smiled to herself. "No, I guess I'm not." She paused. "But you guys are totally grungy," she said, with wide eyes. "You rock!" she said in a deep voice. She started to laugh. "Maybe you should stick with pop. You were quite good at that," she said helpfully.  
"We don't like pop, Michaela," I said.  
"Of course not," she agreed. "It's not very.... manly!" she giggled.  
"Are you making fun of us?" Tweedle-Tay asked suspiciously.  
"No!" she said quickly. "Can I join?"  
We shook our heads. "No. You can't play any instruments," Tweedle- Tay said.  
"You just don't rock," I added.  
"No," she said sadly. "I'll never be one of the boys on the radio." 


	10. Would You Have Hidden Me In Your Attic?

Chapter 10 - "Would you have hidden me in your attic" - Tweedle-Tay's Story  
April 20th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
The revenge plan was almost complete. We had done almost everything we had to do. We'd tortured our parents to no end - they were probably half-mad by now. Just a little more torture and they'd be ready for the final push. They'd be sorry they kicked me out of the band then. Not that it mattered now. Grubbery and I were starting a new band, a grunge band. It was going to be much better than Manson.  
Today, Michaela, Grubbery and I were going to our house again, possibly for the last time. We planned to paint evil messages all over the wall and floor of the attic. That would scare our parents to no end. They'd be sorry then.....  
"Tay!" Grubbery called, walking into the kitchen, where I was eating a chicken and salad roll. "Tay, would you help me with this Math problem?"  
"Sure," I replied. "No problem." I looked at the book. An entertainment system costing $250 is bought on hire purchase. A deposit of 10% is paid and monthly installments of $45 are made over 3 years. Find the total paid and the flat rate of interest charged. "Hire purchase?" I asked, confused. "Flat rate of interest?" I handed the book back to Grubbery. "I don't remember any of this."  
Grubbery looked distressed. "Then how am I supposed to do it?"  
I shrugged. "Sorry. I guess you'll have to wait until Michaela comes home." I looked at my watch. "She shouldn't be long now." I went back to eating my sandwich.  
Grubbery sat down and sighed. "Well that's great," he said sarcastically. "I'll just sit here, waiting....."  
At that moment we heard the door slam. An out of breath Michaela (with her hair all over her face) came bounding into the kitchen. She stopped to catch her breath, took off her sunglasses and put her hot chips down on the table. "Guys," she said breathlessly. "We have to go down to the house." She took her powder compact out of her bag and began to fix her hair in the mirror. "Now," she added.  
Grubbery stood up and handed her his math book. "Could you help me with this?" he asked nicely.  
"No time for that," she said, brushing him off. "Where did we put the red paint?"  
"Why do we have to leave the house now Michaela?" I asked. "I'm eating."  
"So am I," she said impatiently, gesturing to the chips. "But I saw the parents' car going past the general store when I was buying my lunch and, well, we have to get the stuff done while we can."  
"Oh," Grubbery said, picking up the paint tins from the corner of the kitchen. "Let's go!" he said, more enthusiastically.  
I reluctantly put down my lunch and picked up another couple of paint tins from the corner. "I guess they will be back pretty soon," I agreed.  
"Exactly," Michaela said, nodding. "That's why we have to leave now." She picked up the last few paint tins and we all walked down the hallway and out the front door. "We're going to have to be quick."  
I nodded. "We should have someone on sentry as well," I said, as we began to walk down the street. "Any volunteers?"  
We all looked down at our feet. "Who?" Grubbery asked.  
"Maybe Michaela," I said quickly. She hadn't said that she *didn't* want to go on sentry. I turned to her. "It'd be safer for you."  
She rolled her eyes. "Why? Because I'm a girl?" She looked at me for a reply.  
Well, yeah. I didn't say it though.  
Michaela shook her head. "That is so sexist, Tweedle-Tay. I am just as tough as you and Grubbery. There is no way you're getting me to do it now." She paused. "Maybe Grubbery should do it. He's the youngest. We don't want him coming to harm because of us."  
Michaela was right. I turned to Grubbery. "She's right. You're going to do sentry duty."  
I think I heard Grubbery mutter something that sounded suspiciously similar to,"That's fuckin' ageism," but he nodded. "Okay," he said. "I can't be bothered arguing."  
We collected the spare keys and unlocked the door. "You wait here Grub," Michaela said. "If you hear the parents coming just....."  
"Yell out.... 'MMMPop'," I suggested.  
Michaela raised her eyebrows and smothered a laugh.  
"Okay," Grubbery said reluctantly, shrugging.  
"Cool," I said, Michaela and I walked up the stairs to the second story of our house. I snuck a look inside my own room. Grubbery's trundle bed was missing now. All evidence of me was gone. There were still bits of Neuton and Grubbery floating around though. It wasn't fair. How could the parents be so mean? Didn't they care about Michaela and I at all? We were their own flesh and blood, for God's sake!  
Michaela squeezed my hand and gave me a sympathetic look. "C'mon Tweedle-Tay," she said softly. "We have stuff to do."  
I nodded and we walked up the attic stairs into the attic. Michaela shivered. I wasn't sure if it was because of her short skirt, or her memories of the attic. Although we'd been back to the house several times we'd hadn't actually been into the attic again. Not until today.  
Michaela gave a little, strained, smile. "It seems like it's been ages since we've been able to talk alone," she said, as she took the lid off a can of paint.  
What was that supposed to mean? Didn't Michaela like Grubbery?  
"Not that I don't like Grubbery," she added hastily. "It's just that I haven't been able to talk to you."  
Shit. She could read my mind. "Likewise," I said.  
Michaela smiled. "How's Alisha?" she asked, painting on the floor.  
I opened up my tin of paint. "She's good. She can't come to see us yet, though."  
"Still infatuated?" Michaela grinned. "Sorry, in love."  
I nodded. "She *is* great, Michaela. I don't know why you can't see that in her."  
"I guess she is quite pretty," Michaela said carefully.  
There was a silence. "Do you think this is going to help, this revenge?" I asked Michaela.  
She shrugged. "I hope so. I hope our parents are suffering. I hope they realise-"  
"MMMPop!" came a voice from downstairs.  
Michaela and I looked at each other in fear.  
"MMMPop!" the voice called urgently.  
"Shit!" I said, dropping my paintbrush.  
Michaela put the lid on her paint tin and began to pick up as many as possible. "Tweedle-Tay," she said, with forced calm. "We have to get rid of evidence of our being here....."  
I was already racing down out of the attic and down the stairs. I ran down the hallway and out of the front door of the house, where Grubbery was waiting for me. He grabbed me and pulled me behind a hedge. "Thank you, Grub-" I began.  
He clasped his hand over my mouth. "Shhhh," he said.  
We watched the parents, along with Liz, Kess, Mackie and Mozzie walked up the path to our house.  
"Thank you for the ice-cream Daddy," Elizabeth said sweetly.  
"Suck," Grubbery hissed into my ear.  
"Yeah, thanks," Kestrel said. Mozzie and Mackie through in their appreciations. The kindness of the parents took me back to when I was twelve, before they turned evil. I remembered how our parents would always buy us a chocolate after shows, an extra treat, although not as good as the applause. Our family was approaching the open door of the house.  
"Daddy!" Elizabeth said nervously. "The door is open."  
"Well aren't you clever...." Grubbery muttered sarcastically.  
"I know honey," our mother replied.  
"We were expecting this," our father added.  
It was as they all made their way eagerly into the house that I realised what Grubbery and I had done. "Michaela," I said urgently to him. "Michaela's still in there!"  
"Shit."  
I thought quickly. "Go home Grubbery. There's bound to be trouble, and if you leave now, it might be harder for them to find out where we're staying." I paused. "I'm going to go get Michaela." Grubbery ran off down the street and I ran into the house. I could hear noises coming from upstairs. Michaela must have only just walked down from the attic! What an idiot! She should have left the paint there and saved herself.  
I ran up the stairs where our father was confronting Michaela. "You little whore," he said to her. "I should have known that it was you. I always knew you'd be the downfall of the family, as all pretty twin sisters always are."  
I saw my mother wince at that one. So she should. Michaela saw me and looked at me pleadingly. What could I do?  
"You do know that breaking and entering is illegal, don't you?" our father continued.  
I had to do something. If only I weren't so thin. But I had to do what I could with what I had. My father couldn't see me...... I had some sort of advantage there. I ran in front of him and kicked him between the legs. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough strength to knock him out, but he did stumble. I grabbed Michaela's hand and we ran down the stairs together, Michaela *still* carrying the paint. I could hear the rest of the family running after us.  
"Tweedle-Tay?" Elizabeth kept on saying. "What is *he* doing here? I thought he left two years ago....."  
Michaela and I ran out the door and down the street. We couldn't go straight home, then they'd know where we lived. We had to get away from the, though. And there were more of them than there were of us. We were going to have to use our wits.  
"Thank you Tweedle-Tay," Michaela said, still running.  
I grinned. "It wasn't like I was going to let you die."  
She attempted to laugh, but failed. "Do you have any friends around here? Who's houses we could go into?"  
I frowned. "No any more. I haven't seen them for so long...." I paused. "I've got it!"  
"What???"  
"We'll run to the mall. There'll be so many people there they'll never be able to spot us," I explained.  
Michaela somehow managed to laugh and run at the same time. "Yeah, 'cause Tulsa is *such* a big city....." She paused. "But what if they decide to chase us in the car???"  
Well, there was nothing we could do about that. Thankfully, our parents didn't think of that, and by the time we'd gotten to the mall they were off our trail. We walked to the food call and I sat down exhausted. Michaela was so tired she nearly fell on top of me. "Sorry," she said, giving a little grin. She sat down in a separate chair. "Tweedle-Tay, thank you so much for coming after me."  
"That's okay," I replied honestly. "I never should have left you there in the first place."  
"Hmmm...." Michaela paused. "Well, I think we've gotten the message through to them. We can't go back there now. That would be idiotic."  
I nodded. "They'll have the place locked up like a fortress."  
"We're going to have to put the last part of the plan in to place as soon as possible. We don't have time to leave it any longer. They know it's us. They know it's not God punishing them," Michaela continued.  
I shook my head. "God is punishing them through us."  
Michaela raised her eyebrows. "Anyway, I'm going to make the phone call this afternoon." There was a silence. "Shit Tay, I should have taken my bag with me."  
"Why?"  
"I left my make-up at home and I've been running for fifteen minutes. I must look a mess," Michaela was overly distressed, for someone who'd nearly been killed by their own father.  
"You look fine," I replied, honestly. "A little red faced perhaps."  
Michaela whimpered.  
"You look gorgeous," I added. "Like me," I joked.  
She made a face, then laughed. "Thanks Tay," she said kissing me quickly on the cheek. "For everything." She stood up. "We'd better get home to our food..... unless you have money?"  
I shook my head and stood up. "Unfortunately, no."  
"Oh well," Michaela said, taking my hand. "I guess we'll be going now."  
"I guess we will be," I replied.  
If only Grubbery were old enough to drive! 


	11. Sorry I'm Not Home Right Now

Chapter 11 - "Sorry I'm not home right now...." Michaela's Story  
April 20th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"Grub!" I called, following Tweedle-Tay into the house. "We're home!" Tweedle-Tay and I had finally finished the 25 minute walk back to our house from the mall. My feet felt as though they were burning. It was probably because of my three-inch heels. We walked into the lounge room, where Grubbery was sitting reading Romeo and Juliet. It must have had something to do with his English homework.  
Grubbery looked up from the play. "You're home?" he asked, sounding more than a little pissed off. "What took you so long? I've been home for nearly an hour now."  
I sat down on the lounge and took off my shoes. "The parents were following us," Tweedle-Tay explained. "We went to Woodland Hills."  
I began to massage my feet. "They couldn't find us there. There were too many people," I added.  
Grubbery looked worried. "They were following you?"  
I nodded. "We didn't want to lead them straight to the house, so wee ran to the mall. Then we had to walk back here. That kind of thing takes up time you know."  
"We didn't stay there for long," Tweedle-Tay added. "Just long enough to catch our breath. We didn't mean to worry you."  
"Yeah...." Grubbery said softly. He composed himself. "But I expected you to be home sooner.... They know that it was us now?"  
I nodded. "I'm going to call ABC this afternoon."  
"Maybe you should call them now," Tweedle-Tay suggested. "We don't have a lot of time."  
"I guess you're right," I agreed. I walked over to the phone and picked up the cordless. Everything was so.... empty, I guess. Everything that we'd been working towards in the past couple of weeks had all gone to waste. Our parents knew that God wasn't punishing them now. The only thing we could hope for now was that the final, most important, part of the plan would fall through. I sat back down on the couch.  
Suddenly Grubbery's empty eyes came to life. "That reminds me!" he said, pointing to the phone. "We got a call, about half an hour ago. It was some girl called Alisha, who wanted to speak to someone called TJ."  
"Alisha!" Tweedle-Tay said excitedly.  
"I knew your girlfriend's name was Alisha so I thought....." Grubbery trailed off.  
"Alisha thinks Tay's name is TJ," I explained.  
"Michaela, would you give me the phone?" Tweedle-Tay asked excitedly. "I have to call Alisha!"  
I shook my head. "I have to call ABC," I said. "We don't have any time to waste. You said so yourself." I turned the phone on and began to dial the number of the Chicago branch of ABC. There was no way I was going to let Alisha come in and ruin our plan. Tweedle-Tay and I had been getting along really well in the past few days. I didn't want Alisha ruining that.  
A man answered the phone. "Hello, ABC studios. How may I help you?"  
I explained our situation to him and he put me right through to the woman we wanted to speak to herself. I told her our story, from Tweedle- Tay's and Grubbery's fame, to the attic, to the coma, the incest and the abuse. She was *very* interested, to put it mildly, and said that she would have us flown to Chicago on Saturday so that we could be filmed on Monday. I thanked her. At least one part of the revenge plan was going to work out okay. When I got off the phone I filled in Tweedle-Tay and Grubbery on the details. They were very pleased indeed.  
"It's going to be 100% legitimate," I told them. "All about us and our parents and the abuse."  
"Good," Grubbery said. "We don't want it to be too tacky."  
"Of course," I said carefully, "There are a few little things they want us to do. Not too much though."  
"Like what?" Tweedle-Tay asked.  
"Like they want us to do a couple of musical numbers...." I said, trailing off nervously.  
Surprisingly, Tweedle-Tay and Grubbery were enthusiastic. "We can do MMMPop in three-part harmony," Grubbery said eagerly.  
"And we can do Baby Girl, too," Tweedle-Tay added, obviously proud of his new 'masterpiece'.  
There was something about this that concerned me though. "Three-part harmony?" I asked nervously. "You're not going to call Neuton back, are you?"  
"No," Tweedle-Tay said, as though the entire thing were obvious.  
"You can sing the third part," Grubbery added.  
"I'm going to sing lead of course," Tweedle-Tay went on. "Because that's what everyone would expect. You can sing Grubbery's part and Grubbery can sing Neuton's part."  
"But your voice is lower than mine," Grubbery argued.  
Tweedle-Tay shook his head. "Well, I have to sing lead, and Michaela can't sing that low."  
"Michaela can't sing at all," I contributed. They didn't notice.  
"Maybe if we were singing Lucy....." Tweedle-Tay continued.  
"Well, why don't we?" Grubbery asked, annoyed. "It would make a nice change. We never got to sing Lucy live when we were famous!"  
"Maybe that's because it was a crap song!" Tweedle-Tay argued.  
Okay. This was getting bad. "Uh, guys?" I asked nervously. They turned to face me. "I think we're forgetting something rather important here....."  
"And that would be?" Grubbery asked.  
"Well, I don't want to sing. I'm not a singer," I explained.  
"Oh," Grubbery was speechless.  
Tweedle-Tay shook his head. "That is bullshit Michaela." He turned to Grubbery. "She's talking shit. Michaela was in a band in LA, *and* she did voice for her performances in music." He turned back to me. "You just don't want to sing our songs, do you?"  
I shrugged. "Well, not on national television."  
Grubbery looked annoyed. "Well that's too bad. You'll look stupid if you don't sing with us."  
Tweedle-Tay smiled. "And the harmonies won't work without three voice."  
"Please Michaela....." Grubbery made his face look angelic.  
I couldn't be bothered arguing with him. "Okay....." I agreed. I had no life. It wasn't as though I had anything to lose. Only dignity, respect....  
Tweedle-Tay's face lit up. "I know!" he said excitedly. "We can invite Alisha! She can be part of the studio audience!"  
"But she doesn't know who you are....." I warned.  
"Oh well," Tweedle-Tay said, caught up in his excitement. "I can tell her on Monday." He picked up the phone and began to dial.  
Alisha was coming..... I was going to be singing Manson songs on national television. Oh well, it was important to look on the bright side. Our parents were going to get what was coming to them. 


	12. Talk Show Host

Chapter 12 - "Talk Show Host" - Tweedle-Tay's Story  
April 24th, 2000 - Chicago, Illinois  
  
"Do you want your hair up or down?" the make-up artist asked me, playing with my hair.  
"Down," I replied firmly.  
I could see her make a face in the mirror. "Maybe we should wash it first. It's a little greasy."  
I walked over to the basin and let the woman wash my hair. "What's your name?" I asked, trying to be friendly.  
"Sophie," she replied, running the water through my hair.  
"Mine's-" I began.  
"I know," she said, cutting me off. "It's Tweedle-Tay." She paused. "Are you nervous?" she asked.  
"A little," I admitted. Sophie beckoned for me to stand up and I walked back to the make-up chair. "It's been ages since I've been on television and now when I'm going on, it's because...."  
Sophie looked sympathetic as she began to blow-dry my hair. "I know, I heard." She sighed. "It really is terrible that anyone could do that sort of thing to their own child." She paused and made an effort to smile. "But I'll be watching you on the monitors, rooting for you."  
"Thanks," I said gratefully.  
Sophie finished brushing my hair. "There," she said, pleased with her work. "You look much better now. You do have good hair you know, a nice colour..... And now, the make-up.... You'll just need a foundation, to cover those zits -"  
Well, that was a confidence booster.  
"And some lipgloss. Standard male make-up."  
Sophie and I made small talk until she had finished the make-up. Then it was Grubbery's turn. I thanked her and made my way down the hallway to look for Michaela, who was probably in wardrobe. As I made my way down the hallway I heard a voice call out from behind me. "TJ!"  
It was Alisha. I turned around and sure enough, there she was, looking beautiful as always, in black Capri pants and a blue knit top. "Alisha!" I called, running towards her in excitement. We hugged and kissed. It had been so long since I'd kissed Alisha, almost a month. "You look.... stunning..." I said, looking her up and down.  
"Likewise," she said. She licked her lips. "Strawberry flavoured lipgloss," she observed. "They sure do make you up here."  
I smiled. "I guess you're wondering why I invited you here....." I began.  
Alisha nodded. "Well, I did at first but -" She paused. "I don't live in a hole, Tweedle-Tay," she said emphatically. "There've been ads on TV all week - that's how they got the studio audience, who, I have to tell you, are a bunch of freaks."  
"So, you don't mind?" I asked.  
Alisha looked thoughtful. "Well, I don't mind that you're Tweedle- Tay Manson, although God knows I hated him..... but I do mind that you lied to me like this." She pouted. "Don't you trust me, Tweedle-Tay?"  
"Of course I trust you!" I protested.  
Alisha shook her head. "I don't think you do. Your sister *was* Michaela Morgan, wasn't she?"  
I nodded. "Yeah."  
"You didn't even tell me that." Alisha was starting to look pissed off. "You see, Tweedle-Tay, I think trust is the most important aspect of a relationship." She laughed. "That's probably why I have such a shit relationship with my parents. But you didn't trust me. Basically, the entire personality you threw at me was a lie...."  
"So you're saying?"  
"Well, if there's no trust, there's no relationship. So we didn't really have a relationship." Alisha kissed me softly on the lips. "Thanks for the ticket to Chicago though."  
"That's okay," I said quietly. I took her hand. "I'm really sorry I lied to you, Alisha," I said earnestly. "But I had to. You'll understand why when you watch the show. Then you'll understand. And then, we can get back together?"  
Alisha shrugged and smiled. "Maybe," she said weakly. "I'll have to see."  
"Maybe?" I asked, sadly. "Please.... Alisha, I love you...." I leant down and kissed her.  
"We'll see," Alisha pulled away. "I'll see you later." And with that she walked down the hallway towards the studio.  
I walked down the hallway too, towards wardrobe. When I arrived there I was handed black leather pants and a tight black top. It was a cool outfit. Stylists had great taste. I got changed into the clothes and walked out to the backstage area, where Michaela was sitting, biting her fingernails.  
"Don't do that," I said cheerfully, sitting next to her. "You'll chip your nail polish."  
Michaela looked up at me and smiled. "I'm not biting my fingernails," she said. "I'm biting my fingers. My nail polish won't get chipped that way."  
"Are you nervous about the singing?" I asked her.  
She shrugged. "I don't know. I've heard that this was pretty heavily advertised on television. I'm a little worried about all those people hearing me. I mean, we're even on prime time, which is pretty unusual - that's why I made them let me chose my own clothes -" Michaela gestured towards her black leather mini-skirt and tight red shirt. She looked at my clothes. "We're going to look like a S&M group...." she said, giggling. "No, I'm worried about the revenge plan."  
"What about it?" I asked. I thought the revenge plan was going great.  
"Well, what if this show doesn't work out? What if everyone thinks we're in the wrong? What if our parents sue us for defamation? What is they decide to kill us instead? What if-??" Michaela began to list all of her worries.  
I smiled to myself. "Michaela, you're always freaking out like this, but does anything bad actually ever happen?"  
Michaela frowned. "Well, yes, it does. We got locked up in an attic and Grubbery went into a coma. Those are just two bad things that have happened. You're the one who worries about silly things, like people thinking you're gay and the attic getting flooded with blood!" Michaela began to laugh at the silliness of it all.  
"Kay, I think everyone's going to be on our side. Our parents are 1000% in the wrong and you know it. I think even *they* know it," I explained.  
Michaela nodded. "You're right there Tay. I know it's a little late to be saying this, but what is the point of us doing this? How are we going to find happiness by going on the -" Michaela paused and a made a face "-Oprah Winfrey show?"  
"Our parents will get punished the way that they deserve," I replied. "Then we can get on with our lives."  
"But what if we can't?" she persisted. "What if we just stay like this forever? What if our innocence has been destroyed so much that we -"  
"Michaela, you're being silly. This is all inside you're head. We're going to be happy. Aren't we always happy together?" I asked. "Don't we have fun?"  
Michaela nodded. "Most of the time...." There was a silence. I looked at Michaela. She looked back at me. "We do get along...." she said softly. I moved closer to her. She looked down at her skirt and then back up at me. "Maybe too well..." she said, leaning over.  
We kissed. And kissed. And kissed. I heard footsteps coming down the corridor. Michaela quickly pulled away. "We're going on the Oprah Winfrey show," she said excitedly, as though nothing had happened.  
Grubbery walked into the room. "Hi guys!" he said, sitting down next to us. "What have you been up to?"  
"Nothing," Michaela replied, a little too quickly.  
"Nothing," I said, just as quickly. "Why would you think that we'd been up to something?"  
Grubbery looked at us, surprised. "No reason. Are you excited?"  
I nodded. "Yeah."  
"Hopefully we'll get asked better questions this time than we did last time," he added.  
"Well, you do have something important to talk about now," Michaela said.  
"Yeah, although it's not exactly-" I was cut off by a tall man who came running into the room.  
"Kids, you're going on in about thirty seconds," he said, catching his breath. He led us to the opening of the stage. "All set?" he asked. He didn't wait for us to reply. "When she says Manson and all the girls start to scream, you guys run on and start to sing. Okay?" He ran off.  
"I love it how they treat us with so much respect," Michaela said sarcastically. I didn't have time to reply because within a couple of seconds the screaming had begun. We ran out onto the stage and waved. When we got to the microphones we began to sing 'MMMPop' a capella. It sounded pretty good. Michaela had a higher voice than Grubbery had had at eleven, so she was actually better than he had been at hitting the high notes. Grubbery could do Neuton's part easily. And I was singing the same old part that I'd always sung. The girls in the audience were going mad, screaming and dancing and clapping. It was actually quite surprising. I hadn't expected them to be so enthusiastic, considering Manson had fallen from popularity two years ago.  
When we'd finished we waved again and Oprah said she'd be back talking to us again in a moment. The prop guys rearranged the furniture so that we could sit down and we all made ourselves comfortable in the few seconds we had before we were back on air. I could see the prop guys beckoning everyone to cheer as the show came back on air.  
"Well," Oprah said. "It's been a while since we've had Manson on the show and a lot of things have happened since then. Manson fell from popularity two years ago because of Tweedle-Tay's disappearance, which was apparently because of his girlfriend." The audience began to boo. "Well there was a new girl in his life and she was, just like they said, seventeen, with blonde hair and blue eyes and she was, indeed, *very* pretty." The audience booed loudly. "But never fear girls, because that girl was -" Oprah looked at me.  
"My twin sister Michaela," I said helpfully. Michaela gave a little wave to the audience.  
The audience had stopped booing and now looked confused. We chatted with Oprah, explaining everything that had happened and the audience sat there in silence, not laughing, not crying, just looking totally, utterly, dumbfounded. We told them about the attic, about our dramatic weight loss, about the boredom, about our parents' incest, about Grubbery's coma. We basically told them everything important except about the time that Michaela and I had.... (Grubbery didn't even know about that) and we didn't tell them about our revenge plan. The whole time Oprah was nodding along sympathetically and not really allowing us to answer her question properly. When we'd finished explaining Oprah said that we'd be back in a moment playing one of our new songs, 'Baby Girl'.  
We walked over to the new set and I set myself up at the drums. Grubbery went to the guitar and Michaela went to the keyboards. It was a complete rearrangement of what Manson used to be, but Michaela could only play the keyboards (and not that well, either) and I couldn't play the guitar, so... When we came back on air we began to play the song, with me singing lead vocals and Michaela and Grubbery doing the harmonies. I felt a little bit sorry for Michaela, I knew she hated the song, but I thought it was good.  
What was going on between Michaela and myself? I shouldn't feel attracted to her, I was going out with Alisha, who was very beautiful.... But Michaela was prettier. Not that Michaela's prettiness made it okay. I mean, she was my *sister*. The whole thing was disgusting. But... we felt something for each other. Maybe it was still there, from the attic.  
When the song finished there was another commercial break. We all walked back to the interview set and sat down with Oprah. When the show started again Oprah talked about the pain that we must have gone through in the attic and invited the audience to ask questions. Now was the time. We'd finally find out what they thought of the parents.  
Within seconds several girls had raised their hands. Oprah called on a girl wearing a green track-suit jumper and a big green hat with a flower in the middle. She stood up, looking quite pleased with herself, and asked, "I would like to know if the Mansons have a curfew."  
A curfew? Hadn't she been paying attention for the past half an hour? We all sat there in shock. Grubbery came to his senses first and answered, "No, Michaela and Tweedle-Tay live by themselves in Beverly Hills and I'm going there with them soon, so....."  
"We don't need to impose curfews on each other," Michaela finished off for him.  
Next Oprah called on a girl wearing a Manson T-shirt and jeans. "What colour are your toothbrushes?" she asked.  
"Aqua," I managed to choke out, disgusted at the question, but smiling anyway.  
"Green," Grubbery replied.  
"Purple," Michaela said.  
Oprah then called on a girl wearing a pink boob tube and aqua skirt. It was Gwen, who looked very excited. "Hi Tweedle-Tay!" she said, waving at me. I waved back, and Michaela did too. Grubbery just raised his eyebrows. "I live in LA, home of the stars, and I went to school with Tweedle-Tay and Michaela for six months." She paused and smiled. "Tay and I were best friends. I kissed him. It was *really* good. Anyway, I was wondering what sort of qualities you look for in a girl?"  
"I don't look for a girl," Michaela quipped.  
"Uh, human?" Grubbery suggested.  
"Nice...." I said, lying. The truth was pretty. Pretty and bubbly. Alisha.... and Michaela. God, I was a freak.  
The questions didn't get any better. Although we got asked heaps, none of them had anything to do with the attic. They were all to do with girlfriends and social lives. We left the stage having hardly achieved anything. We walked backstage, where Sophie was sitting, looking up at the monitor. "You guys did a good job," she said nicely.  
"Thanks," I said. I looked up at the monitor. Oprah was back on the air. She was asking the audience what they thought of us.  
"That Tweedle-Tay is very nice looking. *Very* nice indeed. And Grubbery, what a cutie!"  
Was that all they had to say?  
I looked over at Michaela, who could see what I was thinking. She shrugged and smiled wryly. "What did you expect?" she asked. "They *are* Manson fans." 


	13. Thank U

Chapter 13 - "Thank U" - Fergie's Story  
April 24th, 2000 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
  
"Kids! It's dinner time!" I called out, placing the sixth plate on the table. Within seconds MacArthy and Kestrel were at the table, with their hands placed together. Mozzie came running into the room about thirty seconds later.  
Skipper walked into the room and kissed me on the cheek. "Oooh, what do you call this honey?" he asked, sitting across from me at the table.  
"Steak and veggies darling," I replied, smiling.  
"Amazing," he said, shaking his head. "How *do* you manage to come up with these dishes?"  
There was a silence, as we all waited for Elizabeth to join us at the table. MacArthy began to pound on the table with his fist. I gave him a look, and he stopped. "Liz, honey?" I called.  
"Come down! Your dinner's getting cold!" Skipper yelled.  
A couple of seconds later Elizabeth joined us at the table. "Sorry," she said, sliding into her seat. "Aaron was on MTV..."  
I raised my eyebrows and Skipper ignored her. "Thank you Lord for the food you've placed on the table for us. Thank you for keeping us all safe and together as a family unit. Amen."  
"Amen," we repeated and began to tuck into our food.  
"Dad?" MacArthy began. "It's Johnny's birthday party next weekend and he's having it at the water-slides. Can I go?"  
"Johnny Aitken from down the street?" Skipper asked. MacArthy nodded. "I suppose so."  
"Can I have money for a present?" MacArthy asked.  
"Sure Mackie, I'll give you fifteen dollars later," I replied.  
There was a silence. "Mommy?" Kestrel asked. "Can I watch Southpark tonight? It's on at 8:00, a special 1 hour special for kids."  
I nodded. "Well, if it's a kid's hour, I think that would be fine."  
Elizabeth and Kestrel glanced at each other with knowing smiles.  
  
*******************  
  
"So come on down to Southpark and meet some friends of mine...." the TV sang.  
I sat down in front of the television with Skipper, Elizabeth and Kestrel. I'd just put MacArthy to bed and I was looking forward to sitting down and relaxing in front of the television with a nice cup of coffee. Although Southpark had been on television for two years, I hadn't gotten around to watching it until tonight. I had heard rumours about it's unsavoury material, but surely the Comedy Channel wouldn't put a *cartoon* on so early in the evening, if it weren't suitable for children.  
A nice man in a green jumper was holding up a puppet and trying to teach some children. "So children, what did you learn from that episode of The Love Boat?"  
And people wondered why we homeschooled our children. The show was really quite delightful. The nice teacher had a puppet called Mr. Twig, who he spoke to a lot and the children were a bit cheeky, but sweet. Everything was going lovely until the fat boy said -  
"Give me my fucking cheesy-poofs!"  
Skipper and I looked at one another in shock. Skipper recovered first and grabbed the remote control. "What sort of programming is this?" he fumed at the girls, changing the channels. "Why would they show a show with that sort of language so early in the night, if at all? Sometimes I don't know why we even *get* cable?"  
Elizabeth looked at us with wide eyes. "I don't know why we even wanted to watch it, Daddy. If we had known it was going to be so rude...." she began sweetly.  
Kestrel frowned. "We wouldn't have asked to watch it at all."  
Elizabeth and Kestrel glanced at each other and smiled.  
"That's okay girls," I said. "I know you'd never choose to watch a show like this."  
Skipper was still urgently changing the channel. Finally he got back to free-to-air TV. NBC, CNN, ABC.... That wasn't.....  
Skipper stopped changing the channel and stared at ABC. Three of our children (and no prizes for guessing which ones) were on the screen singing some sort of rubbish about a baby girl. "What program is this?" Skipper asked, his voice shaking in rage.  
Elizabeth picked up the TV guide and looked through it. "Oprah," she read. "A special on the lost Manson siblings...."  
"How lovely," I said slowly. I looked at Skipper. What were our children doing, singing on Oprah? They weren't exactly famous anymore. They weren't telling her about.....? No, they wouldn't do that.  
Skipper turned to the girls. "It's getting late. How about you two go up to bed."  
Elizabeth looked surprised. "It's five past eight, Daddy," she protested. "My bedtime in 9:00 and Kestrel's is 8:30."  
"Then go and do your homework," he said, urgently.  
"We don't have any homework. We've done it all," Kestrel explained.  
I gave Skipper a look. There was no point in sending them away. I was sure..... The door bell rang. "Elizabeth, would you get that?" I asked nicely.  
Elizabeth obliged. After all, the show *was* in an ad-break. I heard a scream. Elizabeth? Skipper and I got up to run to the door. Walking quickly down hallway were two policemen. "Fergie Manson?" one asked, cuffing me. I nodded and looked over at Skipper, who was also being put in handcuffs. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can and will be used against in the court of law," the policeman said.  
"I think you've made some sort of mistake," Skipper said, looking over at Elizabeth and Kestrel, who were standing in the doorway. "We haven't done anything wrong. We're good Christians and law-abiding citizens." I nodded in agreement.  
"Well if the stuff your kids have been saying is true, nothing could be further from the truth," the policeman holding Skipper said, laughing bitterly.  
"Please," I begged. "Our children are here and they're too young to look after themselves. They need us...."  
"Well, we'll take care of them too, put them in foster homes," the policeman holding me replied.  
Foster homes? They couldn't put my babies in foster homes! "Please," I continued. "If you have to take us away, then call our son, Neuton. He'll look after them until we come back."  
"*That* we will do..." the policeman replied.  
"Good bye sweethearts," Skipper said to Elizabeth and Kestrel, who were looking on in horror.  
"Mommy and Daddy will be back in the morning," I called out, making a kissing noise as I was hauled out the door. 


	14. No One Cares, My Friends

Chapter 14 - "No one cares, my friends" - Gwen's Story  
April 25th, 2000 - San Fernando Valley, California  
I sat down in my first period Spanish class and opened my 'Teen Dream' magazine. A guided tour of Nick Carter's house, Boys Next Door poster, Leonardo DiCaprio's sperm sample was up for grabs.... As exciting as the May issue of 'Teen Dream' was, it wasn't foremost in my mind. My cool new pink leather pants weren't either. Tweedle-Tay Manson was. When I had seen him last night he had been so good looking and so sweet, but then again, what else was new? I couldn't believe that I had been friends with him, as TJ, for such a long time and not recognised him. I couldn't believe that I had *kissed* him and preceded to eat. All of his saliva would be gone by now. Stupid food.  
But that wasn't what mattered. All that mattered was that Tweedle- Tay Manson had had the hots for *me*, Gwen Mendelson. I really *was* a babe! He had thought I was so gorgeous and sexy.... well, Tweedle-Tay could point his erection in *my* direction any time he wanted.  
The bell rang and the rest of my Spanish class began to file into the room. To my surprise, someone came to sit next to me. That someone was, Cordelia Fowler! "Hey Gwen!" she said sweetly.  
"Hey Cordelia!" I replied, flicking my hair. Rod Rilkens and Victoria Alcott came to sit near me as well.  
"We saw you on TV last night," Victoria said.  
"I loved your outfit. Pink and aqua are a great combination," Cordelia continued.  
"And boob tubes are going back into style!" Victoria added.  
"Thanks," I said, smiling.  
The rest of the class began to crowd around me as well. I didn't just feel like a princess, I felt like a *star*! "What was it like, being there?" Cordelia asked. "Could you feel their pain?"  
Pain? It had all been pleasure for me. I nodded. "It was so sad. I felt so sorry for them."  
Rod nodded. "Me too. Michaela and I were so close. Now I understand why she was such a frigid bitch."  
Cordelia nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, she was my best friend. I don't know why she never told us about what happened...."  
"I guess she didn't trust us enough...." Victoria said sadly.  
"And Tweedle-Tay and I had such a deep relationship," I said, bringing the conversation back to a more interesting topic, myself. "We kissed and everything. But he still couldn't tell me....."  
Victoria nodded. "Kristy danced with him once at the Halloween dance and he didn't even tell *her*. I don't think they wanted to tell anyone."  
Rod sighed. "I called up KISS FM last night and told them about how I used to go out with Michaela. I got the new Pearl Jam CD, they felt so sorry for me."  
"Such a shame," a girl I couldn't quite remember said. "Did you hear about how their parents have been arrested and taken to jail?"  
Cordelia nodded. "They're being questioned and apparently they'll be taken to trial in a couple of weeks."  
"Imagine how stressful that will be on poor Tweedle-Tay and Michaela," Victoria said sadly, shaking her head.  
"If only they'd told us...." I agreed.  
"Oh well," Cordelia said brightly. "We may as well look on the bright side. They might ask us to testify." Cordelia paused for dramatic effect. "We could all be on TV!" 


	15. All Those Sick Things You Said That I Wo...

Chapter 15 - "All Those Sick Things You Said That I Would Do" - Michaela's  
Story  
May 6th, 2000 - New York, New York  
  
Beep. Beep. Beep. I slammed my hand down on the alarm and slowly got out of bed. It was only 7am, but we had to get up early this morning so that we could be fresh for the trial and 8.30am. I looked through my suitcase for a responsible looking, yet stylish (some of the court case was to be televised) outfit. Black skirt that came just below the knee (I didn't want to look cheap), black top. I needed some colour. I picked up a pastel green cardigan and held it up against myself. Pretty good. I picked up the clothes and stood up, ready to go into the bathroom.  
"Hey Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay said groggily, opening his eyes. "What time is it?"  
"7 am," I replied. "You'd better get up. We're having breakfast with Louisa at 7.30."  
"Right," Tweedle-Tay said, looking annoyed at the prospect of getting up early.  
"Try and hurry," I added running off to the bathroom.  
  
*****************  
  
"Good morning guys!" Louisa said, running over to our table at the little cafe down stairs from Grandmother Morgan's apartment.  
Louisa was a lawyer who worked for the government. The government wanted our parents put away but had to have them put to trial first. We were going to be the key witnesses. "Good morning," I said cheerfully.  
Grubbery pulled over a chair so that Louisa could sit down. "Have you ordered yet?" she asked.  
Tweedle-Tay nodded. "Grubbery and I did," he said. "Michaela was too stressed to eat."  
Louisa nodded and turned to me. "Honey, I understand that you'd be nervous. The next three days *are* going to be very stressful. But you have to eat. We can't have you fainting on the witness stand, can we?"  
"I guess not." I replied.  
"I'll order you a bagel," she said, ordering our meals as Grubbery's and Tweedle-Tay's were being delivered. As we began to eat, Louisa continued to talk. "I think we are a shoe-in to win this case. Tweedle- Tay may not get his lost Manson earnings back, but your parents are sure to be punished in some way. There is no way they can escape punishment. It's going to be obvious to the jury that they are in the wrong." She paused and took a sip of her coffee. "To tell you the truth, I feel sorry for their lawyer. I really can't think of a plausible defense for them."  
"They'll probably go with the 'we're good Christians' defense," I said bitterly.  
"But it's obvious that they aren't," Louisa said warmly. "The paintings on the attic, Grubbery's coma...."  
"They might say that we're lying," Grubbery cut in.  
"They might," Louisa agreed. "But that's pretty weak."  
"I think they'll go with picking out all the bad things we did," I said, looking at Tweedle-Tay.  
He nodded. "I'll bet that's what they do."  
Louisa paused. "I think you'll have to pay damages for what you did to the house. But nothing else you did was illegal."  
"Well, not in New York," Tweedle-Tay mumbled under his breath.  
Was it illegal? I think it was. Shit.  
  
******************  
  
"I, Michaela Manson, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God," I said, with my hand on the bible. It was typical that I'd have to be the first witness called to the stand. I'd never seen anybody do this before. I looked down at Tweedle-Tay and Grubbery, who were dressed in matching clothes for once in their lives. To the right I could see my parents and my other siblings. My mother was wearing a pink, floral dress, obviously trying to look like a good suburban house wife. My father was.... argh!  
"Michaela," Louisa began, looking up at me and telling me to remain clam with her eyes. "You didn't meet your parents until you were fourteen years old, did you?"  
"No."  
"And this was because you were living with your grandmother, wasn't it?"  
"Yes."  
"When you met your parents, how did they respond to you?" Louisa asked, leading me in the right direction.  
"My mother was pleased to see me, and my father said that I was, um, a devil child who would ruin the family. I was allowed to stay in the family for a about two weeks, when they decided that they would send me away."  
"Why did they want to send you away?"  
"They said that I would be bad for Manson's image. You know, the band."  
"But they didn't send you away. When your brother, Tweedle-Tay, said he didn't want you to leave, what did they do instead?"  
"Our father said we'd both have to leave. Our mother said she'd put us up in the attic for a few days until he got over his anger. But those few days turned into a year and a half."  
Louisa nodded seriously. "And what happened to you when you were in the attic?"  
I paused. "Well, we only had one meal a day so we both lost about thirty pounds. And, well, we got *really* bored and well....."  
  
******************  
  
Our parent's lawyer came to the stand. "Good morning Michaela," he said. "How are you?"  
"Erm, I'm okay, I suppose," I replied nervously. I had to be so careful of this man. Whatever I said, I felt as though he was going to twist the meaning of it.  
"That's good," he said, nodding to himself. "Michaela, this book you speak of, the diary... How do you know it was real?"  
"Real?" I repeated. What did he mean by real.  
"Yes, real. Authentic. How do you know you're brother didn't write it?"  
"Because it wasn't his handwriting. And one of the diaries was written by my grandmother, and I can recognise her handwriting."  
"So, due to these diaries, you believe that your parents are brother and sister. Twins," the man continued.  
He was digging his own hole! "Yes," I said.  
"And you have proof of this?" he continued.  
"They had a DNA test," I explained.  
He nodded. "So they *are* twins. I think it's wrong for twins to have sexual relations, don't you Michaela?"  
He was actually helping us. "Yes."  
He nodded again. "Well that's interesting. Be honest with me Michaela, have you slept with your brother, your *twin* brother, Tweedle- Tay?"  
Shit. I was under *oath*. I couldn't lie. I glanced down at Tweedle-Tay who was looking up at me with fear. Grubbery looked amused by how ridiculous the question was. He was going to be devastated.  
"Michaela, did you have sexual relations with your brother Tweedle- Tay?" the lawyer pressed.  
"Yes," I choked out. "But we were in the attic. I didn't want to. Not then. If they hadn't put us in the attic, this never would have happened!" Tweedle-Tay was sliding down his seat and Grubbery was looking at him in disgust.  
"So are you saying it was rape?" the man continued.  
"On occasion."  
"How many occasions?"  
"Once."  
"And how many times have you and Tweedle-Tay had sexual relations?"  
  
I could see Grubbery and Tweedle-Tay whispering. "Four times."  
"So, are you and Tweedle-Tay bad people?"  
Well, yes. But I didn't say it. Were we? "Just let me think about that." I thought for about ten seconds. "No. Tweedle-Tay and I would not be in the situation we're in today if we'd never been in the attic."  
"And what makes you think that?" the lawyer asked.  
"Tweedle-Tay was a fifteen year old boy. You know how fifteen year old boys are. All they *ever* think about is sex. I was the only girl he *saw* for a year and a half."  
"But that doesn't explain you, Michaela."  
"Tweedle-Tay and I became best friends," I said. "We loved each other." I paused. "Anyway, girls have sex drives too!"  
"So you and Tweedle-Tay gave into your sex drives?"  
"Yes," I said weakly.  
"And that's what your parents did too, wouldn't you agree?" he continued.  
"No. They weren't locked up in an attic at a crucial stage in their development. They had other people. If we'd had other people we never would have done this!" I protested. This was hell. I just wanted to come down from the stand. Oh god, and it was being televised too.  
"Right," the lawyer said. "Well, I for one have a little bit of trouble believing that, don't you?" he said, turning the jury. "That's all I have to say."  
  
********************  
  
"So you see," our mother said to her lawyer, "We only sent Michaela away because we couldn't get enough food on the table to feed her. And when we put the twins up in the attic, we only wanted them to learn to get along. We were doing everything for their own good."  
"You were just trying to give your children a well-rounded upbringing?" the lawyer asked nicely.  
"Exactly," our mother said charmingly.  
"That's all for now," the lawyer said.  
"Case adjourned for the day," the judge said.  
I slowly stood up from my seat and began to follow Tweedle-Tay and Grubbery from the court room. Today they'd managed to question me, my father, Grubbery, and my mother. Tomorrow they'd be doing Tweedle-Tay, Neuton and secondary character witnesses. Our parent's case seemed to be avoiding the torture they'd inflicted on Tweedle-Tay and I and was instead concentrating on what bad children Tweedle-Tay, Grubbery and I were. For such an irrelevant case, they were doing a good job.  
When we were standing outside in the foyer, Grubbery turned to talk to Tweedle-Tay and me. "I really don't know what to say to the two of you," he said. "I can't believe you've slept together. You're not doing it anymore are you?"  
"No," I said quickly. I wasn't ever going to sleep with Tweedle-Tay again.  
"I don't know," Tweedle-Tay said at the same time. "Michaela and I are having a hard time."  
I sighed. "I really don't know what to do."  
Grubbery shook his head in disgust. "You two make me sick," he said. "But I can't hate you for it." He forced out a laugh. "I'm confused too....."  
"Hey!" Three little blonde children ran over to us. Elizabeth, Kestrel and MacArthy.  
You should have seen the look of excitement that came over Tweedle- Tay's face. "Hey!" he said back. "How are you?"  
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Not great," she said. "I don't know what to think. I mean, you guys aren't lying when you say that our parents did those things to you, are you?"  
I shook my head. "Unfortunately, no."  
"Then I really *do* come from a family of mental cases," she said sadly. She paused. "I can't believe that our parents could be so mean."  
"Where's Mozzie?" Grubbery asked.  
"With Neuton," MacArthy said.  
"He's been looking after us," Kestrel added. "He thinks your all liars."  
"Neuton is certain that our parents are in the right," Elizabeth continued. "If you are lying, why?"  
"We're not lying," Tweedle-Tay said. "If you don't believe us, when you get back to Tulsa, go up to the attic." He paused. "But not for too long. Our parents might shut the door on you."  
Elizabeth looked sad. "If you *are* right, our parents are going to go to jail. We might never see them again."  
"We might be separated," Kestrel added.  
"Our parents might leave us?" MacArthy asked.  
Elizabeth shook her head. "You can't let that happen, Tay. You just can't."  
"I won't let that happen," Tweedle-Tay promised.  
"Good," Elizabeth said. "We'd better go now. Neuton will just die if he finds out we've been talking to you."  
Well, I for one hoped he'd find out. 


	16. Vow

Chapter 16 - "Vow" - Tweedle-Tay's Story  
May 10th, 2000 - New York, New York  
  
"Michaela!" Grubbery whined. "Get off! Get off the Playstation!"  
"Shhhh..... Grubbery, I'm getting the new high score," she said absentmindedly, her eyes glued to the screen.  
"Tay!" Grubbery turned to me. "Make her get off!"  
"Michaela, you *have* been on for twenty minutes....." I said. "Give Grubbery a turn." Michaela had been playing Tetris on the Playstation for the past twenty minutes.  
"I can't help it that I'm smarter than the two of you," Michaela replied, slotting yet another piece into it's place.  
I rolled my eyes. "And you're so modest too....."  
She turned to me and smiled. "Well, now that you mention it, I guess I am modest....." She turned back to the screen. "Fuck!" The pieces had piled up and the game was over.  
"Great," Grubbery said, rubbing his hands together, "Now it's my turn." He changed the game to 'Tombraider'.  
Michaela reluctantly handed him the controls. "It's getting stuffy in here," she said. "Anyone want to come down to Bloomingdales with me."  
"I guess so," I said. "Grub?"  
He snickered. "Are you kidding??? I just got on!"  
"Okay then, I'll just get my bag," Michaela said, getting up.  
The phone rang.  
"I'll get it!" Michaela said, walking across the room. "Hello?.... Oh hi Louisa...... you're kidding! ...... Oh no, that's fine, we'll be down stairs in five minutes." Michaela hung up and turned to Grubbery and I. "Sorry Grub! You're going to have to get off. Louisa's going to pick us up in five minutes. The jury's come to a decision."  
"A decision!" I said excitedly, jumping up from where I was seated. I ran over to Michaela to hug her.  
"Oh my god!" Grubbery screamed, dropping the controls. "The parents are going to be punished!"  
Michaela wriggled out of my embrace and smiled. "Calm down, we don't know what the decision is yet. They could decide to let our parents walk free."  
"As if!" I scoffed, in the way Michaela used to. "It was easy to see who was in the wrong."  
"Yeah," Michaela agreed, smiling. "I guess it was."  
  
*******************  
  
"The jury had come to a decision based on the evidence brought forward by the witnesses in the past four days," the judge said.  
I looked at Michaela nervously. Our entire lives were going to depend on what a bunch of people we'd never met before in our lives thought. She clutched my hand and bit her lip. "It's okay Tay," she whispered unconvincingly.  
One of the ladies from the jury stood up. "We have come to a conclusion. Skipper Manson and Fergie Manson are guilty of abusing their children Tweedle-Tay Manson and Michaela Louise Manson by locking them up in an attic for the period from October 11th 1997 to May 27th 1999, which is 594 days. Because of this, we believe that they should be sent to prison and serve a term of 20 years."  
The lady paused. "We believe that the delinquent behaviour of Tweedle-Tay Manson and Michaela Louise Manson, which includes incest and vandalism, is due to their being locked in the attic. However, we rule that they must pay for the repairs to the house. On the subject of the younger children - Grubbery Skipper Manson, Elizabeth Anna Manson, Kestrel Reed Manson, Joshua MacArthy Manson and Mozzie Cleopatra Manson, we believe that they should be kept with family members but, due to his affiliation with Skipper Manson and Fergie Manson, I would not be preferable for them to stay with Kent Neuton Manson. If possible we would like the younger children to be kept in the custody of Tweedle-Tay Manson and Michaela Louise Manson and live in Tulsa."  
Well, Elizabeth would be glad that they wouldn't be separated. And it would be nice to get to know my younger brother and sisters again. The lady from the jury sat down. I looked across the court at my parents. My mother was crying onto my father's shoulder. I felt kind of sorry for them, but I quickly sent those feelings away. They deserved everything they got, out parents. Liz, Kess and Mackie were crying too. Couldn't they comprehend what our parents had done? Didn't they understand that the parents would have gone on to do the same to them?  
They probably didn't want to understand.  
I turned to look at Neuton. He was glaring at me. Neuton, of all people, should have supported Michaela and I. He was my best friend before Michaela came along. Surely he knew we wouldn't have done this if it weren't utterly necessary?  
The judge agreed with the jury's verdict. Michaela and Grubbery screamed with excitement and hugged each other. Grubbery then turned and hugged me. Then Michaela hugged me and we kissed. Only for a few seconds though.  
When you thought about it, it was kind of weird, us getting so excited about our *parents* being locked up.  
Louisa turned to us and smiled. "Guys, I can't tell you how grateful I am for your time. The less child abusers we have around, the better." When she saw my slightly distressed face she whispered in my ear, "Don't feel guilty Tweedle-Tay. Feel proud. If you didn't stop them, they'd have done the same thing to the others...."  
"Thanks..." I said, tears welling in my eyes. I quickly blinked them away and turned to Michaela, who was tugging on my sleeve.  
"C'mon Tay," she said. "We've got bags to pack and a party to throw!"  
  
And now it's time for the final chapter. You have three choices.  
a) If you'd like Tweedle-Tay and Michaela to have a chance at being truly happy, pick ENDING A, the one where Michaela takes responsibility for her future.  
b) If you'd like the most realistic ending, the one we'd probably all do in real life, pick ENDING B, the one where Michaela takes responsibility for her past.  
c) If you like Hollywood style endings with a sicko twist, pick ENDING C. 


	17. ENDING A Tainted Love

Chapter 17 - "Tainted Love" - Michaela's Story  
May 12th, 2000 - New York, New York  
  
"Next," the man at the ticket booth at the train station called. I moved one space forward in the long line to get to the ticket booth. My brothers and sisters were sitting together on the platform we were leaving from.  
The parents had been sent to prison. Tweedle-Tay and I were returning to Tulsa to start a new life, with our younger brothers and sisters. We were going to be two teenagers playing house, more so than we had been in Beverly Hills. In Beverly Hills we had been two teenagers living together, but it had just been us. Our house had been a bit like party central. But now Tweedle-Tay and I were going to be playing Mommies and Daddies. Tweedle-Tay and I were going to be playing Mommies and Daddies until we were thirty-three years old, and Mozzie reached her eighteenth birthday.  
Thirty-three years old. Shit. Another sixteen years with Tweedle- Tay. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't love him - Tweedle-Tay was my best friend. Okay, to be honest he was my only friend. And well, he also happened to be very attractive. So why was it that I didn't want to live with him for the next sixteen years? We could always pretend that we weren't brother and sister.... twins. But that was just too eerily familiar. I didn't want to end up like our parents.  
So Tweedle-Tay and I were going to live together for the next sixteen years. We were going to be spending every day looking at each other, see each other's boyfriends and girlfriends - and hating them, acting as though everything was fine and dandy, and all the while just want to.....  
Could we never find happiness? Our parents were in prison, we'd gotten what we'd wanted so badly..... We had our revenge. It seemed that ever since the day Tweedle-Tay and I had met everything in our lives had been totally stuffed up. Maybe our parents had been right to send me away as a baby. When Tweedle-Tay and I had been apart we'd both been perfectly happy. I had been happy in Beverly Hills, he'd been happy in Tulsa. But from the day we'd met, there'd always been some sort of tension there. We could never totally relax, not even now.  
There had to be some way we could both be happy again.  
"Train to Tulsa leaving from platform 18a in 20 minutes at 12.30pm. Train to Boston leaving from platform 14b in 15 minutes at 12.25pm. Train to....." the loudspeaker said.  
That was it! If Tweedle-Tay and I were apart we would have a chance to get over each other and start new, happier lives. I would go to Boston! I quickly grabbed a pen and paper from my bag and began to write.  
  
'Dear Tweedle-Tay,  
There's no easy way to tell you this. I can't live with you, in the way that we've been living, any more. When you think about it, we've been miserable ever since the day we've met. So here I sit, trying to think of some way that we can finally both be happy again, and then it comes to me.  
I have to leave you.  
Don't think I'm leaving because I don't love you or I don't want to be with you. I think you and I both know that we love each other too much, and it's wrong. There's no way we can both go on like this and lead normal lives.  
I hope that some day you will realise that I left you not for selfish reasons, but for the common good. Don't come looking for me, because you won't be able to find me.  
Don't think that I'm leaving you with nothing though. Once I reach my destination I'll transfer $4million into your bank account, to help you look after the others. And you never know Tay, maybe someday I'll get over you and we'll be able to be together once more.  
Love Always,  
Michaela  
PS Keep smiling :-)'  
  
"Next," the man at the ticket booth called.  
I walked up to the counter. "Hi," I said. "Can I please have one concession ticket to Boston, and five children and one concession to Tulsa," I added, fumbling around in my purse.  
The man raised his eyebrows and put my order into the register. "Tulsa and Boston..... that's an unusual request....."  
"Yeah, well...." I trailed off nervously. It wasn't like I was going to tell him the truth.  
"Here you go," he said, handing me the tickets.  
"Thanks," I replied cheerfully. "Have a nice day!"  
"You too! Have fun in Boston!" he called after me.  
How did he know *I* was the one going to Boston? I removed my ticket from the pile and put it in my bag. I put my letter inside Tweedle-Tay's ticket and walked over to platform 18a, where my brothers and sisters were sitting.  
I approached Tweedle-Tay, who was talking to Grubbery and holding Mozzie. Elizabeth was reading 'Bop' and Kessie and Mackie were playing naughts and crosses with chalk on the ground.  
"Hey Tay!" I said. "I bought the tickets!"  
"Thanks Michaela," he said, taking them. "It'll be so great to be able to go back to Tulsa without associating it with our parents and stuff....." He paused. "I can't wait!"  
"Yeah," I lied. "Me neither!"  
"Only fifteen minutes 'til we get on the train...." Grubbery said, looking at his watch.  
I looked around nervously. "Um, I need to go to the bathroom," I said. I picked up my bag. "I think I'd better go now before we get on the train."  
"Okay," Tweedle-Tay said.  
I kissed him on the cheek. "Bye Tay," I said. I leant over and kissed Grubbery as well. "Bye Grub."  
Grubbery laughed. "Why are you taking your bag if you're just going to the toilet?" he asked.  
Why was I? Shit. "Make-up," I lied. "I have to fix my make-up."  
"Right," Grubbery said.  
I leant over and kissed Liz, Kess, Mack and Mozzie goodbye too. "Bye Mozz," I said sadly.  
Tweedle-Tay was beginning to look annoyed. "Michaela, you're going to the bathroom. You don't need to make such a big deal about saying goodbye!"  
"Well, I just get sad when I'm separated from you guys, even if it's only for a short time," I explained.  
Tweedle-Tay laughed. "But you're practically crying!"  
"Am I?" I asked, blinking the tears from my eyes. I laughed. "Must be the pollution." I leant over and kissed him again. "Bye Tweedle-Tay!"  
"Goodbye Michaela," he said impatiently, waving me away. God, if only he had know that he was never going to see me again he wouldn't have been so dismissive.  
I walked down the platform and ran down the stairs to platform 14b. I checked my watch. Only five minutes until the train was due to leave. I really should be getting on..... I removed my ticket from my bag and walked over to the conductor. "Hi!" I said, showing him my ticket. "How are you?"  
"Good thanks," he said cheerfully. "You're going to Boston?" he asked, looking at my ticket. I nodded. "Nice weather there at the moment. What are you planning on doing there?"  
What *was* I planning to do? "Uh, live..... do my senior year...  
stuff...."  
"Well," the man said, smiling. "That should be fun...."  
"Yeah...." I replied. "Well, bye!" I said, taking my ticket and stepping onto the train. I walked down the aisle and found myself a comfortable seat near the window.  
What was I going to do once I got to Boston? Well, I'd find myself some accommodation, not that it would be a problem, considering my current bank balance. Then I'd find myself a school, change my name back to Michaela Morgan, and do my senior year without any of the old distractions. There'd be no more Tweedle-Tay, and *that* seemed kind of weird.... We'd spent every day of our lives together for three and a half years and had a sort of co-dependent relationship.  
But now that Tweedle-Tay and I were apart, we could become normal again. We could deal with our attraction, and the attic, and our parents, and everything we'd failed to resolve. And then, once we'd resolved that, we could lead normal adult lives.  
The train pulled out of the station. I looked out the window as we rode along the tracks. When we passed platform 18 I could see Grubbery looking around nervously and Tweedle-Tay looking at his ticket - the one with my letter in it - with a look of horror on his face. I felt kind of bad that he'd have to face all of his misery alone, but I couldn't go back there yet.  
But surely I'd be well adjusted again soon, and surely I'd get over Tweedle-Tay eventually.....  
And, if I could do all that, then maybe someday I would have the courage to return to Stoneybrook Crescent.  
  
Not had enough of the Tweedle-Tay Saga? Check out part 5, 'Diabolical Intentions'. 


	18. ENDING B If you lived through this with...

Chapter 17 - "If You Live Through This With Me I Swear That I Would Die For  
You" - Michaela's Story  
May 12th, 2000 - somewhere between New York and Tulsa  
  
'Crash and burn, all the stars explode tonight  
How'd you get so desperate, how'd you stay alive?  
Help me please, burn the sorrow from your eyes  
Oh come on be alive again, don't lay down and die....'  
  
"Hey hey, you know what to do, oh baby drive away to Malibu...." I sang along with my walkman to myself. How ironic. Here I was, singing about finding happiness near the ocean and I was going out to a city in the middle of the desert. Oh well, there *was* a river there. That was water. But it wasn't Malibu. Then again, we didn't exactly find happiness in Beverly Hills, did we? And that wasn't too far from Malibu....  
"Michaela," Tweedle-Tay nudged me.  
"What?" I asked, removing the headphones.  
"You're singing..... people are giving us dirty looks," Tweedle-Tay said softly.  
Oh. "They're probably just jealous," I said, putting my headphones back on. But I *did* stop singing.  
Tweedle-Tay and I were returning to Tulsa with our younger brothers and sisters. We were going to be playing Mommies and Daddies for the next sixteen years. Sixteen years with Tweedle-Tay. To tell you the truth, the idea of it didn't exactly thrill me to bits, but I'd thought about it long and hard, and there was no way Tweedle-Tay and I could survive if we weren't together.  
Only we weren't going to be *together*. But I was fine with that. The fact that Tweedle-Tay and I were attracted to each other, or 'in love' as we thought, didn't really matter because people should control themselves in these sorts of situations. You couldn't just go and have sex with someone just because you found them attractive. I mean, if you were married to someone, you wouldn't just go sleep with every cute guy who tried to pick you up, would you? So, if married people could have that sort of self-control, surely Tweedle-Tay and I could....  
And we would.  
And not only for that reason. Think how bad it would have been for our younger brothers and sisters if we'd decided to be a couple..... I mean, what would they tell their friends? 'Oh hi.... This is my sister Michaela and my brother Tweedle-Tay. They're twins..... and lovers! Ain't that lov-er-ly?'  
So now, Tweedle-Tay and I were going to be responsible adults. Okay, well maybe not.... let's try responsible teenagers. We were going to take responsibility for our past. It was our fault that our parents (however deserving) were in jail, so we couldn't just leave our brothers and sisters in foster homes. And we didn't want to end up like our parents, so we couldn't act on our sexual tension..... We just had to count on our optimism overpowering the legacy of our past.  
Tweedle-Tay and I would begin again in Tulsa and if this time we failed, we'd begin a third time, a fourth.....  
And, since this story *is* a good story.....  
And they all lived happily ever after.  
  
Not had enough of the Tweedle-Tay Saga? Check out part 5, 'Diabolical Intentions'. 


	19. ENDING C Hey Now Now

Chapter 17 - "Hey Now, Now" - Michaela's Story  
May 12th, 2000 - New York, New York  
  
"Next," the man at the ticket booth at the train station called. I moved one space forward in the long line to get to the ticket booth. My brothers and sisters were sitting together on the platform we were leaving from.  
The parents had been sent to prison. Tweedle-Tay and I were returning to Tulsa to start a new life, with our younger brothers and sisters. We were going to be two teenagers playing house, more so than we had been in Beverly Hills. In Beverly Hills we had been two teenagers living together, but it had just been us. Our house had been a bit like party central. But now Tweedle-Tay and I were going to be playing Mommies and Daddies. Tweedle-Tay and I were going to be playing Mommies and Daddies until we were thirty-three years old, and Mozzie reached her eighteenth birthday.  
Thirty-three years old. Shit. Another sixteen years with Tweedle- Tay. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I didn't love him - Tweedle-Tay was my best friend. Okay, to be honest he was my only friend. And well, he also happened to be very attractive. So why was it that I didn't want to live with him for the next sixteen years? We could always pretend that we weren't brother and sister.... twins. But that was just too eerily familiar. I didn't want to end up like our parents.  
So Tweedle-Tay and I were going to live together for the next sixteen years. We were going to be spending every day looking at each other, see each other's boyfriends and girlfriends - and hating them, acting as though everything was fine and dandy, and all the while just want to.....  
Could we never find happiness? Our parents were in prison, we'd gotten what we'd wanted so badly..... We had our revenge. It seemed that ever since the day Tweedle-Tay and I had met everything in our lives had been totally stuffed up. Maybe our parents had been right to send me away as a baby. When Tweedle-Tay and I had been apart we'd both been perfectly happy. I had been happy in Beverly Hills, he'd been happy in Tulsa. But from the day we'd met, there'd always been some sort of tension there. We could never totally relax, not even now.  
There had to be some way we could both be happy again.  
"Train to Tulsa leaving from platform 18a in 20 minutes at 12.30pm. Train to Boston leaving from platform 14b in 15 minutes at 12.25pm. Train to....." the loudspeaker said.  
That was it! If Tweedle-Tay and I were apart we would have a chance to get over each other and start new, happier lives. I would go to Boston! I quickly grabbed a pen and paper from my bag and began to write.  
  
'Dear Tweedle-Tay,  
There's no easy way to tell you this. I can't live with you, in the way that we've been living, any more. When you think about it, we've been miserable ever since the day we've met. So here I sit, trying to think of some way that we can finally both be happy again, and then it comes to me.  
I have to leave you.  
Don't think I'm leaving because I don't love you or I don't want to be with you. I think you and I both know that we love each other too much, and it's wrong. There's no way we can both go on like this and lead normal lives.  
I hope that some day you will realise that I left you not for selfish reasons, but for the common good. Don't come looking for me, because you won't be able to find me.  
Don't think that I'm leaving you with nothing though. Once I reach my destination I'll transfer $4million into your bank account, to help you look after the others. And you never know Tay, maybe someday I'll get over you and we'll be able to be together once more.  
Love Always,  
Michaela  
PS Keep smiling :-)'  
  
"Next," the man at the ticket booth called.  
I walked up to the counter. "Hi," I said. "Can I please have one concession ticket to Boston, and five children and one concession to Tulsa," I added, fumbling around in my purse.  
The man raised his eyebrows and put my order into the register. "Tulsa and Boston..... that's an unusual request....."  
"Yeah, well...." I trailed off nervously. It wasn't like I was going to tell him the truth.  
"Here you go," he said, handing me the tickets.  
"Thanks," I replied cheerfully. "Have a nice day!"  
"You too! Have fun in Boston!" he called after me.  
How did he know *I* was the one going to Boston? I removed my ticket from the pile and put it in my bag. I put my letter inside Tweedle-Tay's ticket and walked over to platform 18a, where my brothers and sisters were sitting.  
I approached Tweedle-Tay, who was talking to Grubbery and holding Mozzie. Elizabeth was reading 'Bop' and Kessie and Mackie were playing naughts and crosses with chalk on the ground.  
"Hey Tay!" I said. "I bought the tickets!"  
"Thanks Michaela," he said, taking them. "It'll be so great to be able to go back to Tulsa without associating it with our parents and stuff....." He paused. "I can't wait!"  
"Yeah," I lied. "Me neither!"  
"Only fifteen minutes 'til we get on the train...." Grubbery said, looking at his watch.  
I looked around nervously. "Um, I need to go to the bathroom," I said. I picked up my bag. "I think I'd better go now before we get on the train."  
"Okay," Tweedle-Tay said.  
I kissed him on the cheek. "Bye Tay," I said. I leant over and kissed Grubbery as well. "Bye Grub."  
Grubbery laughed. "Why are you taking your bag if you're just going to the toilet?" he asked.  
Why was I? Shit. "Make-up," I lied. "I have to fix my make-up."  
"Right," Grubbery said.  
I leant over and kissed Liz, Kess, Mack and Mozzie goodbye too. "Bye Mozz," I said sadly.  
Tweedle-Tay was beginning to look annoyed. "Michaela, you're going to the bathroom. You don't need to make such a big deal about saying goodbye!"  
"Well, I just get sad when I'm separated from you guys, even if it's only for a short time," I explained.  
Tweedle-Tay laughed. "But you're practically crying!"  
"Am I?" I asked, blinking the tears from my eyes. I laughed. "Must be the pollution." I leant over and kissed him again. "Bye Tweedle-Tay!"  
"Goodbye Michaela," he said impatiently, waving me away. God, if only he had know that he was never going to see me again he wouldn't have been so dismissive.  
I quickly walked down the platform and ran down the stairs toward platform 14b. It was five minutes before the train was to leave so I decided to get some food. I walked over to the vending machine. Now, what did I feel like? Coke. And a Twirl. I slotted some coins into the machine, removed my food and began to walk towards the train.  
"Michaela!" I heard a voice call. Tweedle-Tay.  
Shit. I ignored him and began to walk faster.  
"Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay called again, this time closer. "Don't leave!"  
'I can't hear you....' I thought to myself.  
"Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay yelled, impatient. "Michaela!"  
I was nearly there. He couldn't stop me. I was fifteen feet away from the doors of the train.  
"Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay had overtaken me and was now in front of me. "Don't leave! You can't leave. We love each other."  
"Tweedle-Tay," I said angrily. "I'm leaving. I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can say or do that will stop me." I pushed past him.  
"Michaela!" he called again.  
"Leave me alone!" I yelled.  
"Michaela!" Tweedle-Tay grabbed me again. "Listen to me -"  
"No. I told you before. There's nothing you can say or -"  
Tweedle-Tay kissed me. I tried so hard to resist, but when he held me there in his embrace I couldn't be bothered. Tweedle-Tay was right. I couldn't leave. Tweedle-Tay and I were in love and the connection between us was worth more than some lame attempt to be normal.  
"Nothing?" he asked.  
"You're right," I agreed. "I can't leave." I pulled Tweedle-Tay back down to my level and kissed him again.  
"But," I added, pulling away. "We can't go on like this. We keep on skirting around this problem and we both end up alone because we can't bear to be with others, but we can't allow ourselves to be together. So, even if I am in love with you...."  
"I know," Tweedle-Tay agreed. "But we'll just stop being brother and sister. You can go back to being Michaela Morgan and I can just be me and we'll never tell anyone." Seeing the fear in my eyes, he added, "Don't worry Michaela, we won't be like our parents, we know better...."  
"Good," I said, kissing him again.  
"Now come on Michaela," Tweedle-Tay said, leading me back to platform 18a. "We'll miss the train to Tulsa...."  
"How did you know?" I asked.  
"About Boston?"  
"Yeah..."  
Tweedle-Tay opened up the ticket I'd given him, the one with the letter in it. "One concession to Boston?" he said, reading the ticket. "How could I not?"  
  
Ending C follows on to Chapter 18, "This is the end, is the beginning, is the end." 


	20. This is the end, is the beginning, is th...

Chapter 18 - "This is the End, is the Beginning, is  
the End" -Michaela's Story  
March 14th, 2009 - Tulsa, Oklahoma  
I looked down at the little bundles of joy that lay in my lap. Both babies had, like Tweedle-Tay and I had hoped, golden hair and blue eyes. They were identical in every way, except that one was a girl and one was a boy. And so we had wrapped one baby in pink and the other in blue.  
Tweedle-Tay came running into my hospital room, dragging Mozzie and MacArthy behind him. We'd never told Mozzie that I was her older sister, so she seemed to think of me as sort of an aunt. And the fact that Tweedle- Tay and I were twins wasn't something any of our other brothers and sisters wanted to broadcast either, so we were able to lead normal enough lives, me as a lawyer and Tweedle-Tay as an architect.  
Mozzie ran over to the bed and sat down beside me. "Wow, your babies are sooo beautiful," she said, looking down at them. "They look just like you and Tweedle-Tay."  
Tweedle-Tay came and sat on my other side and MacArthy stood near Mozzie. "They sure are cute," MacArthy said. "What are you calling them?"  
"Taylor," I said quickly.  
"Taylor and Michelle," Tweedle-Tay added.  
Mozzie removed two teddy bears from her bag. "These are for the babies," she said, putting them on the bed. "MacArthy and I bought them." She took a bottle of perfume and a sweater from her bag.  
"We got you guys presents too," MacArthy explained.  
"For your birthday," Mozzie added. She swang her legs over the side of the bed. "Isn't it weird how you guys and your kids are all born on the same day.... I wonder why that is?"  
"Well, it makes it easy to remember birthdays," Tweedle-Tay joked.  
"Maybe it's a omen," MacArthy suggested. "Of history repeating."  
There was a silence. "I know!" Tweedle-Tay said excitedly, picking up his Polaroid camera. "Let's take some photos!"  
We all began to pose on the bed. Tweedle-Tay took the pictures and Michelle began to cry. "It's okay honey," I said, pulling her close to me.  
"Is she okay?" Tweedle-Tay asked, concerned.  
"It was probably just the flash," I assured him.  
Within a few seconds the photos had developed and we all gathered round to look at how beautiful the babies were. "Oh my god!" Mozzie said, shaking her head.  
"What is it?" I asked, concerned.  
Mozzie continued to shake her head as she looked through the photos. "Look," she said, pointing at them. "Look at Michelle, at her eyes...."  
And, sure enough, in the photos Michelle's eyes glowed red.  
  
Not had enough of the Tweedle-Tay Saga? Check out part 5, 'Diabolical Intentions'. 


End file.
